


Dinner Guest

by ButWhyIsTheFridgeDoorOpen



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Bi Danny, Danny is older than 21 because of your American laws, Drama, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Fem Danny Fenton, Female Danny, Fluff, Genderbending, Humor, Immortality, Light Angst, Older Characters, Pining, Pompous Pep, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-27
Updated: 2018-03-27
Packaged: 2019-04-08 18:04:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 21,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14111010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ButWhyIsTheFridgeDoorOpen/pseuds/ButWhyIsTheFridgeDoorOpen
Summary: It's another typical night for Danny as she stumbles back home after a day dealing with ghost hunting. But what was meant to be a quiet night in with her parents is replaced with a sudden guest whom she hasn't seen in years. It's a good thing she's old enough to drink. Planned Explicit in later chapters. But its a slow burn so emphasis on the 'later'.





	1. Where Danny is the bear and Vlad holds the poking stick

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is going to focus on the choices we make and their consequences.
> 
> Sometimes life stagnates. Other times it can throw a can of whoop ass at your face. But while it may feel easier to deal with your issues by yourself - whether it's from a subterranean lair or a bedroom. Sometimes the decision to be open with people who care about you can make all the difference in the world.

 

Floating back through her window, Danny had hoped for a graceful landing. However, nothing tonight was working out in her favour. So instead she tripped over her bag, banged her thigh in her dresser and with several ‘fuck’s and ‘goddamnit’s, Danny navigated to the mattress. Rings eloped her body as the transformation back to human form allowed the halfa to finally catch her breath.

 

Patrols were a mixed bag at the best of times. But this one had been particularly difficult. Skulker had installed a new upgrade to his weaponry and the results of said upgrade had left a series of gashes along her back and sides. Granted the fight was still her victory. She hadn’t lost her dignity yet.

 

Moaning, Danny began the painful process of removing her torn up clothing to assess just how much damage she’d taken. The deep red stains would be a cause for concern for most people, but a nifty benefit to being technically half-ghost meant that she could leave most of these open wounds to close themselves with limited risk of infection. Nevertheless, it’d probably be worth at least washing off the caked-on blood. After all, dinner was due to be served in about an hour which didn’t really leave a lot of time to look presentable.

 

Throwing on an old dressing gown, Danny sneaked her way through the hall to the bathroom she had once shared with Jazz. Her sister had long since moved out for college and then for work, leaving Danny with her own private bathroom. A nice bit of luxury at the cost of increased loneliness in the house. Granted, Danny had graduated college recently, but a Science bachelors and a lack of life direction had left her without any real career pathway. In the meantime, she was working under her parents. Maddie had expressed the need for her daughter to have some sort of experience in the field, though Danny was certain that her mother was simply desperate for an extra set of eyes on her father’s scientific methods. Of which there was none.

 

Throwing the water tap to ‘just under boiling’, Danny gingerly stepped into the shower and set to work rinsing off the remains of her fight. Years spent having this second life had left her with a great number of scars. But Danny wasn’t going to complain about the toned muscle she’d obtained in the process. If she had to choose between spending hours at the gym or dodging plasma blasts from supernatural entities, it’d be no real competition. Running a shaking hand through her jet-black hair, the hot water felt amazing on her face. Honestly, she’d almost lost track of time if it weren’t for her mother’s voice dragging her out of her trance.

 

“Danny! Dinner’s ready!”

 

Danny turned off the water and grabbed her towel from its rack. She quickly began to dry her hair, leaving it fluffed up to a comical degree.

 

“We have a guest by the way!”

 

Guest? Danny’s ears perked up. What guest would we be having at this hour? And so last-minute. It wasn’t as if her parents spent a lot of time out, so their friends list was limited.

 

Friends.

 

Friend.

 

Singular.

 

Oh no.

 

 

* * *

 

 

“Hello Little Badger! It’s been a while hasn’t it?”

 

Anything but this fruit loop.

 

“Vlad, so glad you could find time away from all those…vampiric stakeholders in the Mayor’s office to visit us” Danny made no effort to hide her sarcasm. While she hadn’t battled Plasmius in a long time, the fact that she was still in physical pain meant her patience was a lot lower than it usually was.

 

A firm kick in her shin by her mother told Danny to reel in the snarky comments.

 

“It’s always a pleasure to have you over, Vlad”

 

Maddie made the effort to divert the conversation. “Please do help yourself,” she gestured at the modest feast that sat on the dinner table.

 

“Ah Maddie,” Danny cringed at the saturated sweetness of Vlad’s tone, “you truly are a godsend”

 

Helping himself to the heaping of vegetables, Vlad caught Danny’s annoyed gaze and visibly smirked.

 

“My dear girl, how is school?”

 

The pompous dipstick was either baiting her on purpose or genuinely was so out of the loop that he had no concept of how time and the education system worked.

 

“Graduated” Danny stated simply. She wasn’t going to risk another kick from her mother. The woman had a lot of power in her swings.

 

“High school? Oh, that’s such a relief!” Vlad was definitely baiting. Before Danny could verbally retaliate, Jack in all of his proud fatherliness had jumped straight in.

 

“College, V-Man! My little girl is qualified and everything!”

 

“Dad…” Danny sighed.

 

“Jack…” Maddie warned in unison.

 

“College then? So, I suppose you’ll be working towards a career now?” Vlad took a lasting sip of his wine.

 

“Well actually – “

 

“She’s been working for us!”

 

Jack had no real concept of an indoor voice. Danny appreciated her father’s support (he was not lacking in the verbal cheerleading department) but he was almost too excitable. Danny could win a 3rd grade spelling bee at 22 and he'd be bragging about it for months afterwards.

 

“A research assistant?” Vlad raised an eyebrow at Danny who continued stare down her arch nemesis while chewing through a particularly tough piece of roast.

 

“That’s quite an admirable role, Danny. I’m sure your contributions to the industry will be quite useful. More so than any of those…physical extracurricular activities you took during your earlier years”

 

Fighting ghosts, he means. Danny is no longer eating her food like a civilised person but instead devouring it as if the meat represented Vlad’s condescending face. Danny decided that she needed at least 3 more glasses of alcohol to deal with the rest of this fuckery of a formality. Standing suddenly, she made a beeline for the bottle of wine sitting on the kitchen counter.

 

“I’m topping up, anyone else having a red?” She displayed the label of the shiraz her mother had decided on for the evening.

 

Unsurprisingly, Vlad held up his glass as if he were commanding a maid at his own home. The prick. But Danny was damned if she wasn’t going to be a good host. Holding her head up high, she sauntered over to the other halfa and began to pour the blood-red liquid into the shining crystal. Taking her boldness to the next level, Danny leaned into his personal space in an almost animalistic gesture of asserting dominance.

 

“Well as much as I enjoyed those extracurricular activities, Vladimir”, she emphasised his full name with thick arrogance while eying the man off to her side, “I’m afraid the lack of real competition made things boring very quickly”

 

Leaning back up and satisfied with her handiwork. Danny moved back over to her chair and poured her own glass. Vlad had finally removed that stupid smirk from his face. That was a good start. Bonus points for the slight redness coming up from under his collar.

 

“Hah! That’s our Danny! A competitive winner – just like her old man!” Jack proclaimed while slamming his hand on the table in emphasis.

 

Danny took a longer than necessary sip from her own wine glass. Having levelled the playing field, she was happy to just sit back and watch her father’s antics throughout the dinner while the alcohol did its job.

 

* * *

 

And boy did the alcohol kick in. Especially after Maddie and Jack announced that the lateness of the hour meant that sending Vlad home would be rude. Now Danny got to deal with the aftermath of their passive aggressive fight. This night was definitely not in her favour. Thankfully, she’d managed to excuse herself for an ‘early night’ and retreated to the assumed safety of her room.

 

Sweet sanctuary. Now Danny was able to deal with the next task at hand: re-bandaging her stupid injuries because the stupid dressings weren’t staying in their stupid place. Which is stupid. And also, not advisable with the amount of alcohol in her system. But when has the ghost girl of Amity Park ever backed down from a challenge?

 

Danny had been shirtless and halfway through clumsily wrapping a new dressing around her abdomen when her ghost senses kicked in. Could this evening get any worse?

 

“What do you want, Plasmius?” Danny demanded, not bothering to look up from her current task.

 

“A bratty little badger is in need of reminding of who is – what on earth are you doing?”

 

“Fixing stuff”

 

“…I can see that” Plasmius stated, still very confused by her blasé reaction.

 

“Busy. Is this important?” Tipsy Danny was more blunt than usual. And apparently ridiculously calm about the dangerous situation of being caught by your enemy while inebriated.

 

Plasmius took a few seconds to register the current situation before making a decision on how to approach it. Setting himself back down on the floor of Danny’s bedroom, he reverted back to the silver-haired Mayor and snatched the dressing from Danny’s fumbling hands.

 

“You’re going to create more problems if you keep doing that. Hold still.” He commanded.

 

Danny begrudgingly agreed. The girl was too drunk and too tired to really make an effort to fight on such a small issue. Danny’s logical mind (what was still coherent anyway) concluded that if he’d wanted to escalate this encounter into a full battle he’d have done so by now. In a somewhat uncomfortable silence, Vlad maneuvered the dressings around Danny’s wounds and fixed them into place. Content with the end result, Vlad stepped back and allowed Danny to put her shirt back on.

 

Both halfas sat on the edge of Danny’s bed, neither prepared to face the other. Seconds that felt like hours ticked by before Danny finally broke the silence.

“Thanks…I guess”

 

Smooth one. The award for English proficiency goes to Danny Fenton. Communicator extraordinaire! Danny mentally slapped herself.

 

“I mean…okay look I – um…”

 

“You’re terrible at this”

 

“Dude I’m trying! This isn’t the situation for terrible puns or sarcasm so forgive me if I’m just slightly outside my communication comfort zone!”

 

More silence took over. Danny was now fidgeting with her hands. Through the daze of the wine she’d unceremoniously inhaled in the last few hours, she could barely focus her thoughts.

 

“I don’t get it, Vlad” Danny started, “why of all times are you even here?”

 

Vlad frowned slightly at the question. “I’m not allowed to see my friends?”

 

Danny sighed. “You know that’s not what I meant…it’s been years. Why now?”

 

“Because I wanted to, Little Badger. I don’t have to explain myself to you”

 

Danny barked out a laugh. “Explain yourself? Damn straight I want you to explain yourself!”

 

She launched off the bed and started pacing like a stressed dog.

 

“I want to know why – after several years you’re suddenly back in my family’s life as if nothing has changed. I want to know why you didn’t just attack when you ambushed me in my own room. Why are you still openly flirting with my mother? Why do you have white fur on your jacket? And – “Danny paused thoughtfully, “why choose to come to this house which you openly hate - by the way. To spend time with people you hate?”

 

“Because it’s better than being at home”

 

That threw Danny for a loop and a half. She took a moment to register Vlad’s response before probing for more information.

 

“What’s wrong with a massive mansion with all the financial freedom you could ask for?”

 

Vlad’s hands were now threaded through his own silver hair in frustration.

 

“Because its lonely you obnoxious brat!”

 

Oh. Right. Danny had a tendency to forget that loneliness the main motivator behind Vlad’s villainous schemes. She wasn’t a perfect person. But she couldn’t help but feel this nagging little ounce of guilt in the back of her mind. She wasn’t a kid anymore, the excuse of being the self-centred teenager had been outgrown long ago.

 

By the look on his face, it seemed that the honest outburst had caught Vlad by surprise too. Now both hybrids were avoiding the other’s eyes as they shuffled uncomfortably.

Danny took a seat back down on her bed, having decided that standing wasn’t appropriate anymore. Danny know she wasn’t good at the whole back patting comfort that came more naturally to other people. But a quick glimpse at the defeated man sitting on her bed, equally unsure of what to do with himself brought out her sense of heroic duty. A sense that regularly got her into trouble mind you. The clock on her bedside table had now reached midnight. Her parents would be well and truly asleep by now.

                      

“Well”, Danny said finally, “if we’re gonna spend the rest of the night in awkward silence then I’m not doing it inside”

 

Rings were summoned at her limbs and engulfed the halfa’s body. With the transformation complete, the ghost girl floated to the open window of her bedroom. Danny turned to look at Vlad. The man’s face was still painted with confusion.

 

“You coming, Fruit loop?”

 

 

 

Danny extended one gloved hand out to the older halfa.

 

“I mean, you can stay if you want?”

 

Vlad took a moment to consider her offer. Albeit reluctantly, Danny Phantom’s open palm was met with the gloved hand of Plasmius and the two of them began their ascension above the house.

 

 

The night air was warm during the summer and felt amazing. Danny relished the feeling of the winds through her hair as she sped through the sky during times when she desperately needed the solace. And Plasmius refused to acknowledge how her white hair shone in the moonlight at that moment.

 

“You’re not concerned about your parents finding their daughter and family friend missing during the night?”

 

Danny chuckled lightly and playfully turned to face the concern ghost.

 

“You were roommates with my Dad. You should know his snoring will drown out any noise that might wake Mum up”

 

That at least broke out some sort of smile from the older man.

 

“You’re still drunk from the wine, Little Badger”

 

Danny responded with a series of flying loops and antics. Much to the older halfa’s amusement.

 

“More than likely, so if Skulker comes back it’ll be up to you to deal with the situation. Reckon you can handle it?” She poked her tongue out teasingly.

 

Plasmius picked up speed to keep up with the hyperactive ghost. Of course, he could handle it. As long he kept her at a set distance so that she wouldn’t notice the faint flush on his cheeks. A blush he suspected, which was not entirely the fault of the wine.


	2. Where Danny is a doofus and Vlad is still processing

As much as she wanted to blame her behaviour on the wine, Danny knew that the big contributor to her swing in attitude was finally being able to spend some non-violent time with the only other person in the world that was like her. In her mind, it already sounded kind of pathetic. Sure, she’d kept in contact with Sam and Tucker after all these years but when it came down to actually understanding the hurdles a half-ghost person had to face…well they fell short despite their best efforts.

 

Vlad wasn’t exactly the ideal candidate though. Danny had first-hand experience with his tendencies towards narcissism and manipulation. So far, her only option had been meeting malice with equal and wittier (if she did say so herself) malice. But as Sam had so blatantly pointed out one day – the humour was really more of a wall than anything else.

 

She loved Sam. But damned if that woman wasn’t already a psychic in her own right. If she hadn’t have gone into running her own start-up business, then Danny was certain that ‘psychiatrist’ was somewhere near the top of her potential career list.

 

But nevertheless, here she was. Dodging clouds and doing acrobatic manoeuvres like she did when she was 14. Danny wasn’t alone. And she wasn’t being shot at. Maybe things weren’t going so badly after all.

 

Speaking of being attacked on a regular basis – where the hell was Plasmius?

 

The younger halfa slowed her gliding and took a quick scan of her surroundings. Everything was quiet. Uncomfortably quiet.

 

A blur of pink light caught her peripheral vision and out of instinct she became intangible to dodge the incoming assault.

 

“Plasmius!” She returned to corporeal form and yelled angrily, “what the actual shit?!”

 

Laughter was heard over the clouds of Amity Park. Not maniacal laughter like she was used to hearing from the rogue billionaire. This was genuine amusement. Weird. Not bad but still weird.

 

“You did say that you’d been lacking a challenge, my dear girl”

 

The cocky, cape-wearing culprit floated from afar. Smirking the typical smirk and gathering up another plasma attack in his right hand. “Let’s see if I’ve retained some skills after all these years then, hm?”

 

And with that, another pink ball of plasma was hurled towards Danny.

 

Danny moved slightly out of the way of the attack. It barely took any effort. This was a key piece of evidence that suggested to her that whatever was happening her was not to the death. Play fighting? Sparring? Well, that she could get behind!

 

“Alright, you asked for it you old Fruit Loop!”.

 

Danny conjured up her own energy ball.

 

“But be warned!” The shot was aimed just slightly above Plasmius’s hair. Its trajectory caused the old halfa to panic over the risk of losing one of his prized features.

 

“I don’t tend to play clean”.

 

That sounded less dirty in her head.

 

The game was officially on. Had anyone from Amity Park looked up into the sky that night, they’d have been treated to a dazzling show of pink and green neon. Each colourful flash reflected off the clouds as both ghosts phased and dived out of their trajectory. You could almost consider the visuals to be romantic. Almost. Getting grazed by one due to carelessness stung like a bitch.

 

 Danny decided to take a stealthier approach. Invisibility coupled with newfound patience brought her within arms range of the suspicious older halfa. Like a cat to a ball of string, Danny pounced with succession.

 

“Can’t aim at something that’s direct behind you!” Her body was like a human-shaped backpack. Limbs that had extended during a second growth spurt wrapped around the larger ghost and try as he might, they refused to budge.

 

“Call it!”

 

“As if! You little brat!”

 

“Do it! Or I’ll bite your hair!”

 

 

Plasmius stopped attempting to buck off the clingy ghost and relaxed slightly.

 

“Very well, I concede”

 

Satisfied with that answer, Danny slid off from her unconventional piggy back. A sharp twinge in her ribcage confirmed a concern that had been irresponsibly ignored. She’d aggravated that gash from Skulker. Danny hissed and clutched her side. Plasmius reached out to steady the girl and placed a large hand over her own.

 

“You over-estimated your capabilities once again. Come, let us head down and I’ll see what the damage is”.

 

Danny nodded in pained agreement. Together they found a quiet grassy hill in the park. Undisturbed and an easy place to spot trouble from a distance. Plasmius gingerly lifted up the top of Danny’s suit, revealing a dark red stain that had seeped through the bandages he’d applied earlier. Plasmius sighed and replaced Danny’s top.

“The bleeding appears to have clotted already. Consider yourself lucky”

 

Danny smiled at the concern in his voice. It was almost endearing hearing it come from him.

 

“Classic Plasmius – ‘the only one who gets to beat the shit out of Danny Phantom is me!’”

 

She used her best impression of his voice. Based on his not-too-pleased expression, he didn’t agree with its accuracy. Everyone’s a critic apparently.

 

“I would actually prefer neither, if that’s what you’re insinuating” Plasmius replied, solemnly.

 

“Well, I guess that’s good to know” Danny said with an unsure smile across her face.

 

Danny dragged a gloved hand through the grass and played with a few blades in thought. The alcohol in her system was slowly metabolising. At least the relaxing effects were still persisting.

 

“Is it weird to say that this isn’t as bad as I thought it would be?”

 

Plasmius turned his gaze towards her before quickly diverted back to watching the city lights in the distance. The man refused to follow Danny’s lead and take a seat. He opted to tower over her and allow himself the comfort of his perceived imposing height. After all these years, it was starting to have less of an impact on the younger halfa. 6 feet plus vampiric men in capes were a child’s nightmare. Now she was still paying student loans on the miniscule salary her parents could afford her.

 

“It certainly doesn’t follow our usual routine”, Vlad agreed.

 

“I wish we’d been able to do this before…you know – at the start”.

 

Danny smiled sadly as she continued to pluck at the vegetation. “When the accident first happened, I would have killed to have someone help me through it. Someone who actually understood what was going on”.

 

Plasmius flinched at the sadness in her voice. She wasn’t wrong. The whole process was terrifying and while he’d been a young adult when his transformation occurred, the experiences of a 14-year-old were very different.

 

“So, I guess, in a way I totally get where you’re coming from. I mean, I had Tucker and Sam. Eventually Jazz as well. Things weren’t easy but having them around made my problems bearable. Then I think about you”.

 

Danny lifted her gaze from the ground to meet Plasmius. His brows were furrowed in confusion at her last statement.

 

“You spent all those years alone. You didn’t have anyone like Tucker or Sam to call on. And I reckon that if I’d spent that much time in isolation I’d have probably gone insane”.

 

Danny felt the heat in her face spread. She really wasn’t good at emotional vulnerability.

 

“That’s why...I want you to know that from now on I’m going to do my best to be there for you. Yeah, yeah corny I know. But please don’t push me away like you did with Mum and Dad. Because you need to trust me when I say that it gets so much easier when you just let people in”.

 

Danny closed her eyes. There, she reached out. Not the most eloquent of methods but she tried. Now she was terrified of the repercussions. Maybe Plasmius would punch her in the gut and laugh at her human feelings before flying away to set her home on fire. Or perhaps he’d reveal that it was all a long game plot to capture her in a cage and sell her off to the highest villainous bidder. All were viable options. That wasn’t just her paranoia talking.

 

“The past is what is it, Danielle. Rest assured I too had hoped for a different outcome. But this is our reality whether we like it or not. I appreciate your concerns but I’m afraid they’re 30 years too late”.

 

Even though she felt a wave of disappointment wash over her, Danny couldn’t help but feel that his words weren’t entirely directed at her.

 

“Realities can change. If I accepted things for what they were we’d have like, at least one catastrophic supernatural event every second month. You can keep believing that nothing will change but I think that both of us existing already proves that theory wrong”

 

Vlad had to admit that she had a point. When did Danny Fenton pick up this kind of thinking? He suspected her sister and that Manson girl’s influence were to blame.

 

Danny picked herself up from the hill and dusted the grass and dirt off her suit. Vlad wasn’t going to make amends easily it seemed. Furthermore, she was becoming more emotionally exhausted as this dragged on.

 

“I feel better enough to head on home – wanna call it a night?”

 

“Yes, I suppose that would be best”

 

 

Danny Phantom’s return to the familiar surrounds of her bedroom was considerably less clumsy this time around. It may or may not have had something to do with her – could she call him an ‘ex-arch-nemesis’ now? That didn’t have as nice of a ring to it. Oh well, this wasn’t high on her list of problems right now.

 

 If this whole night had been foretold to her several years ago, she’d have probably died of either laughter of disgust. A family dinner, followed by an evening walk – or rather, flight with Vlad Masters.

 

The hybrid couldn’t deny the fun she had though. In fact, was almost melancholic if she thought about it. The potential that was lost all due to the events that transpired during that one weekend the Fenton family visited Wisconsin. Now her options were definitively either go back to the violent relationship they had both allowed to fester into an ugly existence. Or attempt to repair what they could and hope that it’d be enough to allow for a ceasefire.

 

Meanwhile, Vlad was having his own unproductive internal struggle. He had first surprised himself by being openly honest with that brat. He’d admitted to his own anxieties to the one person who was capable of taking advantage of it. Media he could manipulate. Friends and family were non-existent at this point. His biggest threat was, and likely still was Jack’s kid.

 

Vlad hypothesised that a combination of chronic stress and too much casual drinking had allowed his guard to fall. And he had been determined to not let it happen again. So that then begged the question – why in god’s name did he take her hand and accept the invitation to leave?

 

Because the man was certain that it had nothing to do with Danny’s personal development into a somewhat functioning adult. And there was certainly unsubstantial evidence to allude to the idea that the dorky, free-spirited nature she’d retained was at all endearing.

 

Both of them returned to human form, suites and capes being replaced with loose fitting casual wear and an always-overly-formal blazer with matching slacks.

 

Danny dragged her arms up in a long stretch. Air bubbles in her shoulder joints making an audible pop in the otherwise silent room.

 

“I can’t remember the last time I went flying just for the fun of it”, said Danny.

 

“Indeed”, Vlad replied. “Now if you can manage to keep your insides where they belong, you might be able to continue to enjoy this new hobby of yours”.

 

Danny raised an eyebrow at his remark.

 

“Hey now, it’s not the worst thing that I’ve had to walk off. A couple hours of sleep and I’ll be right as – Holy shit is that the time!?”

 

Danny’s outburst was quickly hushed to a harsh whisper. The clock on her nightstand read ‘2:15am’. That did not give her a lot of wiggle room for a solid night’s sleep. Slight downside to getting old: all-nighters weren’t a thing anymore. And an already solid coffee addiction meant that her tolerance was too high to make any real impact on her alertness in 3 and a half hours.

 

“I’m afraid so, Little Badger. As fun as this was it seems we’re both starting off this morning on a handicap. I had better take my leave”.

 

“Vlad Masters, admitting to having fun with the bratty Danielle Fenton?” Danny smirked.

 

“Whatever has the world come to?” Vlad replied with equal sarcasm.

 

A thought suddenly popped into Danny’s head and she made several flailing ‘wait’ gestures with her hands before diving for a pen and paper at her desk. Vlad stood and watched curiously as the raven-haired girl scribbled furiously on a small post-it note. She slapped the note to his chest in a dramatic fashion. A lemon-yellow paper with a messy series of numbers on it hung loosely from Vlad’s bespoke blazer.

 

“I meant what I said earlier, you know? And don’t worry about being imposing or any of that jazz. Half the time Mum has me drafting documentation for their projects. Nothing of value is going to be lost by taking a phone call or two”.

 

Vlad took the paper from his chest and read the numbers as if they were some sort of cryptographic mystery. It didn’t take him long to catch on. He smiled and slid the note into a pocket. Unable to form a sentence worthy of such an act, the man instead gave a polite nod of gratitude and left Danny to her solitude. Closing the door gently behind himself so as to not wake up Maddie and Jack.

 

Stripping down to a loose tank top and her underwear, Danny flopped unceremoniously down onto her bed. She entwined her fingers and lay them on her stomach. Relaxed, but still processing everything. She only had time for what was basically a light nap before a long day of lab work. If there was some divine entity watching over her then she’d pray that her father didn’t mislabel his beakers this time. While her mind was stuck on Vlad Masters, it wasn’t the most ideal state to be in when you needed to control another corrosive chemical spill.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Images? What tomfoolery is this? 
> 
> At first this story was a practise exercise and an attempt to get back into casual writing for fun. Then my tablet gave me this look of rejection. So now this project has two goals: writing and sketch practise.


	3. Where Danny is an awkward turtle and Vlad enjoys her company at work

 

“Jack, look out!”, Maddie called out as her bumbling husband knocked over a flask of unlabelled liquid. The foul-smelling chemical seeped over the laboratory table countertop and began to drip onto the floor. Danny sighed and got up from her seat at the computer to fetch the spill kit. So far, she’d managed to avoid falling asleep during her shift hours despite the sleep deprivation from the night before. But as the hours ticked by her concentration was starting to waver dangerously. Pulling the spill kit from storage, the makeshift lab assistant tore open its contents and quickly controlled the chemical spreading out to the rest of the basement.

 

Maddie was grateful to have at least one other person working beside her to help control Jack’s clumsiness.

 

“Danny, sweetheart thank you”, Maddie said with an audible sigh. “But I’m afraid with that sample destroyed we’ll have to put a pause on this project for another few days”. The disappointment in the woman’s voice was thick. Danny did feel sorry for the stress her mother carried especially during circumstances such as these. And yet somehow, despite every flaw that her father had, her mother continued to look at him with the same expression of love each and every day.

 

‘Must be nice to be on the receiving end of that look by someone’ thought Danny sadly. She returned to her seat at the desk and closed down her work. Now she had an afternoon all to herself. As much as Danny enjoyed her free time she’d made no contingency plans for today. Video games would normally be an option but if she had to stare at another computer screen she might actually snap. Reaching for her phone, she checked for any messages.

 

1 message from an unknown sender.

 

Interesting. Opening up the application, Danny was pleasantly surprised to see that the sender was Vlad Masters. Danny felt a small rush of relief and joy over the fact that the man hadn’t ripped up and disposed of her number.

 

 _‘Thank you for the contact information, Danielle. While my schedule may be regarded as hectic, I do hope you too find yourself comfortable with reaching out to me if you are in need of any assistance’._ It was signed off with the initials ‘ _V.M’_.

 

Even with new age technology the guy still had to be pretentiously formal. Saving the number to her contacts list, she opened up a new message and began typing.

 

_‘Hey, it’s Danny. Work got cancelled on account of a minor lab accident. Mom’s fine in case you were worried. You feel like some company?’_

 

Danny pressed send and hoped for the best. A loud vibration in her pocket told her that Vlad was probably having an equally boring time. The Major of Amity Park shouldn’t be this responsive.

 

_‘Stuck in a meeting. Is 1pm alright with you? My office door will be unlocked – V.M’._

 

Danny officially had plans. The time read 12:32pm. That left her more than enough time get changed out of her PPE and have a shower to remove the stench of the chemical spill. The young halfa bounded up the stairs with newfound energy. Finally, something out of the ordinary was happening.

 

God, she really needed to find a new hobby.

 

* * *

 

 

A tentative knock on the thick mahogany door to Vlad’s office signalled Danny’s arrival. Stepping into the Mayor’s office, the words ‘pompous’ and ‘unnecessary’ came to mind. Mounted heads of various animals decorated the office walls. Bookshelves formed a secondary wall on either side of the room. Heavy leather-bound editions that were likely just there for show. Unsurprisingly seated at the centre of this masterpiece was Vlad Masters. You could say he had looked better.

 

Danny smiled a small greeting and set down two take-away coffee cups in front of the silver-haired man. Vlad looked up from his work and a look of gratitude washed over his face as soon as he saw the gift the girl had brought over.

 

“I uh didn’t know how you liked it so I just went with an Americano if that’s fine? They’re also both double shots. It’s been a long day and I barely made the journey here without falling asleep”, said Danny sheepishly.

 

Vlad took a cup and carefully took a sip. The sigh of content that came from the man was a good sign.

 

“It’s perfect, my dear girl. Thank you”

 

The use of ‘dear’ made Danny go slightly red with embarrassment. A comfortable-looking leather seat was placed opposite the desk, presumably for clients and the like. Danny threw herself into the furniture and began to drink from her own cup.

 

“Bad meeting was bad?”

 

“Something along those lines, yes.” Vlad massaged his forehead. Stakeholder meetings were never fun. There was constant scope creep and the issues surrounding the budget was never entirely resolved. Vlad often wondered why he’d gone into the job in the first place. Because the power trip was short lived while the headaches that came with managing the unmanageable felt like they lasted an eternity.

 

“Sounds like you need an assistant or something”, Danny said pointedly.

 

Vlad scoffed at the idea. He had no need of a personal assistant. He was a particular man who liked his things in a particular way. Never mind that he was swamped in unfiled paperwork and barely keeping on top of his meetings on a weekly basis.

 

The young hybrid chose to ignore the older man’s rebuttal of her suggestion. If he wanted to struggle through his job, then who was she to stop him? Though for all the stress the man was going through, Danny had to admit that he looked incredibly good for his age. Was he in his forties now?

 

“Hey here’s a question I’ve been meaning to ask”

 

“As long as it has nothing to do with the heritage renovations on Main Street then I’m all ears”.

 

Danny frowned. “Oddly specific but no. I meant to ask - how old are you? I mean, I know my memory isn’t always that great but whatever you’re doing is working. It doesn’t really look like you’ve aged much at all”.

 

The Mayor paused from his readings but didn’t look up to meet Danny’s eyes.

 

“Isn’t it obvious that I drink the blood of virgins to retain this god-like appearance of beauty?”, he responded with heavy sarcasm. Getting a straight answer out of this man wasn’t an easy task.

 

“Ha-ha, Fruit Loop. Is that also why you avoid garlic and onions in your foods? I hear the great ‘Dorm Room Toxic Gas Incident of 1998’ is quite a legend back at your old college”.

 

“…Jack told you”

 

“Dad tells me a lot of things”

 

“Butter balls", he cursed.

 

Had Vlad finished his coffee in time, he was sorely tempted to aim the projectile right at the smug girl’s face.

 

Danny’s pockets gave a violent shudder. Another text message in one day. She was the Queen of Popularity it seemed. This one was from Sam.

 

Sam Manson.

 

Okay this fine. She opens the message. Sam was asking her out for lunch. Apparently, it had been a while since they’d caught up as friends. Several months actually. 8 and a half if we were being specific. Not that Danny had been counting or anything.

 

“If that’s an invitation for you to leave me to my solitude so that I can saved from further humiliation then I support it wholeheartedly”.

 

Vlad only half meant that sentiment. As much as the girl was like her father, she was more her own person the longer he spent knowing her. That side he was growing more attached to. The side that lacked a filter he could probably do without.

 

Danny absentmindedly nodded her head in agreement.

 

“It’s Sam asking me out for lunch. I should go…and do that. The lunch thing. With Sam”.

 

Vlad raised an eyebrow questioningly at Danny’s sudden shift in demeanour. Why on Earth did a meal date with a high school friend cause this girl to start tripping up over her own feet so suddenly?

 

Danny threw her empty coffee cup in the waste bin beside the desk. Gathering up her bag, she barely left enough time to say anything comprehendible before she was out the door. In true Fenton fashion, Danny managed to shout out ‘thanks for the chat’ while in the process of running down the hallway of the office.

 

* * *

 

 

Nasty Burger. The place held a plethora of memories for Danielle Fenton. Sure, nowadays the burger grease and the over-salted fries didn’t hold as much magic as they used to. But the restaurant still held a special place in her heart.

 

Pushing open the glass doors, Danny’s gaze directed itself immediately to ‘their’ booth. The one that Tucker, Sam and herself had claimed since they were freshmen at Casper High. A head of black hair and purple makeup signified that Sam had already arrived. Taking a deep breath, Danny made her best effort to calmly walk over and not make a fool of herself.

 

“I made it”, Danny announced. Immediately Sam turned her head to meet Danny and beamed a smile at the girl. It was enough to make her stomach flip flop in on itself.

 

“Danny! Thanks so much for making it. I know it was kind of short notice”

 

“Not a problem at all”, Danny took the opposite seat within the booth, “it was a great idea, thanks for organising it”.

 

The wait staff took no time to sort out their orders. Both women ordered their usuals and handed the cheaply laminated menus back to their server.

 

Sam was the first one to break the silence.

 

“How have you been? You look great! Are you still working at your parent’s lab?”

 

Danny nodded dumbly before being able to articulate a real sentence.

 

“Yeah. Yeah, I am. Still just keeping Dad’s messes in check. Nothing out of the usual”. She paused to play with a napkin. “But it’s not bad, it’s flexible with the hours so I have a lot of time to – “

 

“-hunt ghosts?” Sam cut in.

 

They were back in their awkward silence. Neither of them was prepared to open that can of worms. But that statement had certainly twisted the once tight lid somewhat.

 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that” Sam apologised.

 

“I heard your business is going really well”. Danny was quick to change the subject. Any further probing of that particular open wound would make her want to go ghost and slink away through the floors of the restaurant. “Something to do with environmentalist veganism and…um”. Danny was stuck. Sam had explained this to her multiple times and she could never quite absorb it. Likely one of the primary factors of their falling out she suspected.

 

“Supernatural communications?” Sam suggested. “It’s doing really well actually. We tapped into a kind of niche market”. Niche was one way to put it.

 

 

 “The online store is our major source of revenue, but the public relations are really growing”.

 

“I do remember you getting frustrated searching for a company whose ethics you could comfortably support” Danny said.

 

Sam nodded and smiled. “So, I started my own instead”.

 

Danny returned her smile. “I’m happy for you. Really, Sam”.

 

The food arrived at that point and the two of them continued their lunch with eased tensions. This was largely Danny’s fault. She knew it too. Her stomach had stopped contracting by this stage and was accepting of the oily food she was consuming. However, somewhere deep down was a pit. Ignoring it for almost 9 months had been working out well so far. But seeing Sam again had re-awoken it. It was a rare occasion where Danny both wanted to stay and bolt for the doors at the same time.

 

 

Danny’s satchel bag was thrown unceremoniously across her bedroom as soon as she stepped in. Her phone vibrates, and she reads the text from Vlad asking if she is okay. It shouldn’t surprise her that he picked up on her lack of subtly when she left his office in a rush. Her mind says that she should reply back out of curtesy. But she can’t bring herself to talk to anyone right now.

 

The phone joins the bag on the floor and Danny clambers onto her bed. A moment passes, and Danny stops resisting the urge to roll over and open her bedside drawer. An old polaroid sits there, stored meticulously by its owner. Danny takes the time to take in the photo’s image and lets herself get lost in the memory despite every logical part of her brain screaming that it’s a bad idea.

 

Her and Sam have just finished graduation. Tucker had insisted on taking the photo. Sam still had her cute short bob cut and her arms were wrapped around Danny’s waist as they laughed uncontrollably. Danny could still remember the feeling of holding Sam still during that shot because both of them had been too hyped up with all the festivities to remain stationary for a photo.

 

 The pit in her stomach is wider now and Danny is too tired to care about closing it tonight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pining over an ex isn't healthy Danny. Stop making things weird!
> 
> Like where things are going? Feel free to send a kudos my way. 
> 
> Constructive criticism or just want to say 'hi'? Throw a comment below and I'll get back to ya.


	4. Where Danny discovers the truth and Vlad owns up to it

 

Cold water worked wonders on waking up the groggy halfa that morning. Cupping her hands under the running sink, Danny threw another handful of ice cold water over her face, relishing the refreshing feeling that it brought. Dabbing her face dry with a soft towel she took note of her appearance in the bathroom mirror.

 

Nothing new to report. No new scars, marks, or bruises. On further inspection, one might theorise that had it not been for her body re-composition over the last few years from fighting ghosts, you would think that she was still a teenager. Danny’s face structure was still relatively soft. Her height had stopped inches short of 6 feet. In the beginning, she attributed the lack of height to her mother’s genetics. Not that she was complaining about not having inherited her father’s physique. But for whatever reason, something was nagging her in the back of her mind. Sure, she wasn’t the most voluptuous woman in Amity Park. A fact that she’d come to terms with long ago. But the voice was still there. Something told her to be worried about the lack of physical development. Maddie’s voice echoed form downstairs and snapped her out of her thoughts. Breakfast was ready.

 

Trotting down the stairs to the kitchen, Danny saw that the table had been overtaken by her father.

 

“Hey Dad, what’s all this?” she asked as she took a seat next to Jack. He was pouring over an archive box of old photos. There were literally hundreds of polaroids and prints spread out in front of them.

 

“Oh, hey kiddo! Just sorting through my old school things. After Vlad’s visit last week your mother has been bugging me to file this old junk”.

 

“I did not bug you! You’ve been needing to sort all those boxes out for months, Jack”. Maddie’s head appeared from the kitchen while she dished the last of the bacon onto a plate.

 

Danny began to look through some of the photos. A majority of them were from her parent’s college days. A particular photo stood out: a group shot of their project team. Her mother wearing her hair up in a perm as was the fashion back then. Her father and his terrible mullet. Not so much the fashion of the time but since when did Jack ever care about what people thought of him? His thick arm was wrapped around a wiry young man with black hair. Danny could recognise that obnoxious smirk anywhere.

 

“This is you with Vlad, right Dad?” she asked.

 

“Oh man! I remember this – hey Maddie you look great in this shot!” Jack called out to his wife as she returned to the table, breakfast plates in each hand.

 

Maddie leaned over and glanced at the photo being discussed.

 

“I remember that day, we’d just received a grant for ghost portal project”. Maddie turned to Danny. “Your father was adamant that we got a full shot of the team that day. He was beside himself with happiness”.

 

“Too bad V-Man could barely manage a smile for it. That guy was always so stressed. No idea why” said Jack as he chewed through his first serving of bacon and eggs.

 

“Is that why he’s gone grey and you’ve still got that old high school charm, Dad?”, joked Danny as she served herself some food.

 

Jack barked out a laugh. “That guy has been going grey since graduation. Something about genetics – don’t remember. Before things went quiet he was as white as a snowshoe in winter”.

 

Danny froze, her fork still skewered into a fried egg.

 

“How long ago was that?”  


“Worried you’ll go the same way, kiddo? Hah! Don’t worry – your mother has retained her stunning good looks after all these years. You’ll be just like her, I guarantee it!”

 

Danny ignored her mother’s flattered responses to her husband’s compliments.

 

“That was about 5 years ago, right?”

 

Maddie chimed in at this point to assist her daughter’s query.

 

“It was earlier than that, sweetheart. We were in our early 30’s before we dropped out of contact - if memory serves”.

 

Grey by his thirties? That was certainly possible if he lost the genetic lottery with his hair. But maybe there was more to it than that.

 

“Would you say that Vlad looks unusually young for his age?”. She wasn’t entirely sure if she was ready to hear the answer to that.

 

“Well of course he does, Danny”, replied Maddie. “I suspect a man with that kind of disposable income can afford a lifetime’s worth of Botox”. Jack laughed and gave his wife a peck on the cheek.

 

“Your mother has a sharp wit! I should see if Vlad can hit me up with whatever he’s taking”

 

“Oh, now Jack, you look perfect just the way you are - and you know it” Maddie crooned.

 

Danny had officially stopped listening to her parent’s overly affectionate repartee. The gears in her head were churning a mile a minute. Vlad’s avoidance of the question about his appearance. His apparent limited aging confirmed somewhat by her parents. These were all pieces to a bigger puzzle and she was just one piece short of getting the answer. She excused herself from the table and dashed upstairs, skipping two steps at a time in her haste. Her phone was still where she had left it last night: discarded next to her bag on the floor. In seconds a text message was sent to Vlad Masters at 7:30 in the morning.

 

_‘We need to talk. ASAP’_

 

Minutes had passed before Danny got her reply.

 

_‘Awfully early aren’t we, Little Badger? I will be available after 6 tonight. Can you hold out until then?’_

 

Fine. No one can accuse Danielle Fenton from being incapable of patience. The replacements for the resources her father had destroyed still hadn’t been delivered. Meaning this was another day of filling in time until the next important commitment rolled around. Danny booted up her computer hoping that it would provide a decent distraction from boredom. She wasn’t great when it came to keeping a handle on her emails. In Danny’s defence, a majority of what she received on a weekly basis was nothing but spam.

 

Slowly but surely, each unread email was inspected and deleted when it was deemed useless or irrelevant.

 

Spam. Spam. Badly hidden scam. Spam. Potency drugs for a body part I don’t have. More spam. Tucker?

 

It was an email from Tucker dated 2 days ago. Shit, what had she missed? Based on his signature, he’d sent it from his workplace in Silicon Valley. Tucker had accepted a graduate position in a large tech firm the day he’d finished his degree. Occasionally Danny would hear from him, but the guy was always busy. Tucker was happiest when he had something to work on and his employers were more than happy to provide him with new assignments.

 

She continued to read through the message from her high school friend. He was describing a job opening that he felt she would be a good candidate for – if she was interested. He’d attached a listing of the job and at first glance it was very engineering-focused. Danny had some experience playing with the patented equipment her parents had designed. But not enough that she’d call herself hireable as an engineer. Or even a mechanic. Thankfully with a thorough read, they seemed to just need someone to help out in the R &D sector. Most of the desired skills she’d demonstrated regularly at Fenton Works. This actually looked really promising. The only downside was that it’d require her to move halfway across the country. Deciding that she’d need time to consider her options, she sent a thank you to Tucker and explained her opinion on the subject. He’d understand. He always did.

 

* * *

 

It was 5 minutes past 6 and Vlad Masters was officially late. Danielle Fenton had patience. That patience just so happened to have an expiry date of exactly 5 minutes ago. Here was the ghostly heroine of Amity Park, sitting cross-legged on her bed, being stood up by a Dracula cosplayer. Once he arrives, she was going to give him a piece of her mi –

 

“Apologies for my tardiness”. The blue-skinned ghost phased into her room as though everything was as ordinary as could be.

 

A startled Danny let out an undignified yelp. Not entirely according to plan.

 

“You’re late!” She angrily whispered.

 

“I’m aware, Little Badger”

 

“Don’t change the subject – you and I are going to have a talk!” Plasmius sat back and watched the hybrid take on her ghost form. He decided to not point out the fact that he hadn’t actually changed the subject at all. Her scattered and misplaced anger would not be open to constructive criticism it seemed.

 

Danny flew out ahead of Plasmius in a blur of black and white. She needed to find somewhere private just in case she needed to yell at him some more. Plasmius trailed along behind her, taking a longer-than-appropriate glance at her arse as they increased the distance from Fenton Works. Situating themselves just above the cloud cover gave Danny all the space she needed. She spun around fiercely and confronted the older hybrid before he tried to close the space between them.

 

“Tell me the truth, Plasmius”, she demanded as her green eyes glowed like headlights in the dark. “It’s not some stupid vampire magic or expensive European body cream that’s keeping you looking the way you are now, is it?”

 

 

 

Plasmius let out a sigh of defeat. He had really hoped for a better time to lay this information out to the girl. He wouldn’t deny that he had purposely avoided the subject up until now. Even that afternoon in his office may have been more opportune. But if he really asked himself why he’d kept it under wraps, the answer was that he didn’t want to ruin the small amount of time they were spending with each other that day. Looking back on whole thing, it was really petty of him. But Vlad Masters being a selfish prick was public domain knowledge.  Not that any of this helped him now that a very annoyed and equally cute ghost hybrid was standing before him.

 

“Very well, Little Badger. You could argue that there is a correlation between the concentration of ghost contamination on a genetic level within a half-ghost such as ourselves, and an increased lifecycle for the human cells”

 

His use of unnecessarily long terminology only served to annoy Danny further.

 

“In other words, we don’t age as quickly anymore? I may be stuck looking like this for most of my life?”, questioned Danny.

 

Plasmius shuffled uncomfortably before gathering the courage to finish his explanation.

 

“Actually…there’s no indication that the process continues at all. I have been tracking my cell changes over the past decade. Alterations were and remain to be…minimal”

 

The world at that point seemed to go in slow motion for Danny. Plasmius’ words reverberated in her head as she slowly grasped what they implied.

 

“Danny, please breathe”, Plasmius reached out to hold Danny’s shoulder in an effort to comfort the girl. No one really deserved to have this revelation thrust upon them. When he had first realised his own bleak reality, half his house had been destroyed in his own anguish. But that felt like a lifetime ago and he’d come to accept his fate now. And who knew what or whom would be the unwilling victim of Danny’s own personal processing phase.

 

Danny hadn’t realised that she’d been holding her breath. Her stomach felt like it had dropped onto her intestines as if it had spontaneously gained a tonne in mass. Drops of sweat that ran down from her neck to her back told her that she was perspiring like a pig.

 

“I…I have to go”, she stuttered out before diving down through the clouds. There was no real destination she had in mind. All Danny knew was that she needed to get out of there. That or she’d likely throw up on some poor unfortunate soul down below.

 

Flight and flight responses were running high through her system and there was no physical threat she could kill or outrun. And that was the scariest part. Comparatively, fighting ghosts was easy because it was within her control. But this was something she’d never dealt with before. And she didn’t like it. Not one bit.

 

The lights and buildings of Amity Park were blurs through her vision. At some point Plasmius had disappeared into the background, his protests become white noise to her ears. All she knew was that some point she’d made a landing on the rooftop of an old warehouse. Breathing was not something her lungs were capable of doing efficiently at this stage in her panic. Short gasps of air were barely supplying the oxygen needed to think clearly. The constant feeling of dread engulfed her body as visions swam through her mind. Danny thought of Sam and her kind eyes mixed with that sharp tongue. Sam who knew Danny better than anyone. Tucker whom she’d last seen grinning from ear to ear and waving good-bye before boarding a plane to his new job. Her sister, Jazz and her soothing voice of reason from her regular phone calls that could always provide a solid perspective on any issues Danny ran into. Mom and Dad and their ridiculous scientific stunts and their consistent and unconditional love.

 

 

 

 

She was going to have to see all of them grow old and die while the girl ghost of Amity Park stayed behind. Unchanged. Forever. She will never be able to follow them. What had originally been dubbed by her own friends as a ‘gift’ had now revealed its true colours as a cruel and undeserving curse.

 

All the girl could do now was curl up in the foetal position on the cold and damp concrete. She wanted to scream, cry, even laugh at the absurdity of it all. Instead everything just shut down. As far as Danny was concerned, nothing mattered enough right now to bring her out of this mental hole she’d fallen into. The hole was slippery, steep, and any attempt to clamber out of it was fruitless. Without the energy to keep up the form, her body returned to its human state. Weak and feeble with no special powers whatsoever. Flying home was now impossible. But as far as she was concerned, a ghost could find her, and she’d be grateful that this existence was ended relatively quickly.

 

Danny didn’t remember much after that point. Vaguely her memory has some recollection of black gloved hands picking her up and soothing over her damp and messy black hair. The same hands that supported her back and knees as they picked up her limp form from the ground. She wakes up to find herself back in her bedroom with her alarm going off at the same time it does every morning. If she didn’t know any better, then she’d assume that it was another regular day in a regular year within a regular life. But now Danny knew better


	5. Where Danny deals with bad news badly and Vlad understands

An attempt to use bathroom for her morning shower ended with Danny becoming well acquainted with the toilet bowl. Her stomach had protested to eating breakfast that morning but her determination to maintain a façade of normality forced the food down. Obviously, that was a big mistake.

 

Thankfully Maddie overheard Danny’s little bathroom drama of the morning and was easily convinced that her daughter just had a case of the stomach flu. Without further probing, Danny was permitted to spend her day in bed to fight off the ‘virus’. No longer being under the effects of her recent panic attack meant that Danny could sift through her thoughts and feelings. Well, she tried to at least. It didn’t work according to all those self-help online blogs. Dread had now devolved into a deep and unyielding rage. She was angry at her parents’ irresponsible experiment for creating a hybrid ghost kid. She was angry that Vlad, who had waited up until this moment to tell her the truth about the condition. Ignoring the fact that she’d have likely taken it equally if not worse than if it had been revealed earlier. Rage-Danny wasn’t a rational Danny. The pet name the man used for her was becoming slightly more literal as time passed on. Honey badger don’t give a fuck. Not today.

 

Night time couldn’t come around soon enough. The moment the streetlights had activated throughout the street, Danny Phantom was out. Patrolling wasn’t the word that would describe the girl’s current goal. No, this was more akin to hunting. She wanted to find something to be her punching bag. Consequences be damned.

 

As if answering her wishes, Skulker made an entrance as Danny passed through an industrialised part of town. The place was dodgy and if you were on foot it was considered especially dangerous to be around at night. In other words, it was a perfect arena for a bounty hunter cyborg and a bloodthirsty woman looking for a catharsis.

 

The ghost greeted Danny with a plasma shot from a mounted shoulder weapon. She responded in kind with an equal plasma attack that cancelled out the incoming assault with a violent explosion.

 

“Ready for round two, ghost girl? I shouldn’t have to tell you that I let you off easy last time”

 

Various weapons extended from Skulker’s body. Some were guns, others held blades of a range of sizes and styles. Danny took immediate notice of that one specific projectile that had given her such a problem in their last fight.

 

“Skip the traditional pre-fight banter, Skulker”, she commanded as her eyes glowed dangerously. Each hand summoned flares of plasma that danced fiercely as a physical extension of her wrath.

 

“You want to finish this, you sentient junkyard? Then let’s fucking dance!”

 

* * *

 

 

Vlad’s night had started out relatively peaceful. After having returned Danny home he’d hung back at a distance as Plasmius to keep an eye on the girl. Now there was no denying the growing affection he had for her. It had broken his heart to find her on that building last night. He couldn’t think of any occasion where he’d seen her look so defeated. It was ironic that none of the intentional plans and fights he’d had with Danny Phantom even came close to the damage he’d caused from a handful of truthful words.

 

It was late in the morning before Vlad had been satisfied enough with Danny’s condition to leave her in the care of her parents. He knew it would be a wise idea to allow the hybrid to deal with things in her own time. Besides, he didn’t consider Danny to be a violent person by nature. She’d only ever engaged with enemies when necessary and was otherwise a pacifist. Perhaps she’d cry her frustrations out and when she was ready they’d be able to talk things through. It had seemed like the most logical course of action. If only he knew how false that preconception was. 

 

From his Amity Park residence, he had a glamorous view of the town. Soft lights scattered the dense areas like fireflies in an urban jungle. They flickered softly and invitingly as they provided a sense of comfort in the older man. However, something else caught his eye that night, as he peered out in the distance while nursing an aged single malt nightcap. Flashes of green lights danced out towards a predominantly vacant area of the city. To the untrained eye it would have appeared to be an electrical fault as a result of the age of the buildings. They were overdue for a safety audit after all. But Vlad recognised that the patterns weren’t coming from a faulty electrical system. Apparently, Danny Phantom had decided to patrol the city tonight.

 

Vlad’s brows furrowed in apprehension. This wasn’t expected at all. He placed his still-full glass down and turned on his heels to exchange his pyjamas in favour of clothing much more suited to the outdoors.

 

* * *

 

The makeshift arena had become an onslaught of explosions and screams. Unlike her usual fights, this one was fuelled entirely by an animalistic urge to dominate and lash out. Danny’s brain was dedicated to meeting each blow she received with equivalent force. While her fighting style had primarily focused on maintaining a safe distance and strategizing to avoid unnecessary damage, this battle was none of those things. Concrete crumbled where holes were made from evaded assaults by both parties. Danny and Skulker took every opportunity to close the distance and risk a high yield assault on the other. Without a Fenton Thermos, there was no end to this fight that would not involve one ghost exterminating the other. It was for this reason that Danny had made the conscious decision to forgo taking the equipment with her before leaving.

 

A heavy metallic fist connected with Danny’s gut and sent her flying through a weak plaster wall. Coughing and struggling to catch her breath, she barely had time to register a second fist aimed at her head. Quick reflexes brought her forearm up to guard her skull against the incoming punch. Having redirected the motion of Skulker’s arm, Danny’s other arm flew up to send a close-range plasma shot to the connective joints that made up the cyborg’s ‘shoulder’. The blowback from her precarious manoeuvre sent the both of them back by several feet. When the dust finally settled, Danny was able to confirm the its success. A silver appendage lay severed from its wires and hydraulics in front of her. Danny moved unsteadily towards the limb, plucking it up from the ground and tossing it well out of reach from its owner.

 

Danny placed a foot on the remaining shoulder and grasped Skulker’s wrist. Pulling with her arm and pushing down with her foot, Danny placed a considerable strain on its physical connection to the body. Skulker’s protests fell on deaf ears as another blast from her free hand caused the other arm to join its companion.

Danny smirked sadistically having now completely emasculated her enemy. Her hubris was quickly punished however, as a pink-hued blast made a direct hit with the side of her chest.  Once again, the girl was forced back with her head spinning from the pain of having multiple ribs fractured and one mother of a bruise forming over the top side of her body. In spite of her blurred vision, she desperately looked around to identify the source of the rude interruption to her fight. A fight she had been winning.

 

Blurred blue and black shapes moved around her fallen adversary. They appeared to be discussing something but her ears were still ringing loudly and preventing any useful auditory information from reaching her. The intruder appeared to have finished their discussion with Skulker before turning their attention to Danny. If this was a second fighter, then she may actually be screwed.

_‘You done gone fucked up, Danielle Fenton’_ she thought to herself.

 

As her suspected opponent stalked towards her their identity become more and more clear. The tall figure overshadowed her smaller form and knelt down on one knee to allow them to speak face-to-face.

 

“What in the hell do you think you’re doing, Danielle?!”

 

Danny didn’t think she’d ever heard Plasmius this angry before. If she had been in her right state of mind, then she should have been feeling pretty uneasy at the tone of his voice. If only.

 

“Hey Fruit-Loop”, Danny forced through a pained grimace. “Can we put a raincheck on this? Skulker’s still twitching about and I don’t like leaving shit half finished”

 

“Not while I’m here!”

 

Danny ignored him and tried searching for her previous target but instead found nothing in the rubble where she’d left him. That arsehole ran away! Plasmius let him get away!

 

A deep throated growl found its way up Danny’s throat as she lunged at Plasmius. Her body screamed at her to stop moving as fractured bones grated against each other and torn muscles strained further against the force. But Danny’s hands grabbed fistfuls of Plasmius’ coat as she roared at him, inches away from his startled face.

 

“Who the fuck do you think you are!? Don’t butt into shit that doesn’t involve you!”

 

Her fists shoved the blue-skinned ghost’s body down to the ground as she got up and stepped over him. She stormed over to where Skulker had been and grew increasingly upset that he’d once again got away. Plasma once again consumed her hands and Danny let out a furious shout as she unleashed a barrage of attacks on the empty space in front of her.

 

 

“Please, Danielle this isn’t who you are” Plasmius made a cautious attempt at calming Danny.

 

Danny spun around to face Plasmius, panting with exhaustion from her outburst.

 

“No shit, Sherlock”, she began, “if it wasn’t already super freaking obvious I’m processing a lot of things right now”.

 

“Danielle, you need to talk to me. You need to talk to someo-“

 

“Fine”, she interjected. “You want to talk? Let’s talk! Let’s get all feelings and Dr Phil on this shit”.  The girl was now pacing back and forth with clenched fists shaking uncontrollably.

 

“Let’s talk about my directionless career. How I’m a glorified janitor for my dad’s fuckery of the scientific method and I have no viable options beyond continuing to be a janitor for someone else!”

 

The flood of repressed issues that Danny had kept down with smiles and humour was surging up. Plasmius’ words had been the allegorical bomb to the barely stable dam.

 

“Not to mention that no job in this damn town would be even close to allowing the hours I need to keep things from blowing up due to the fun problem we have with supernatural invasions. Oh, and speaking of ghost hunting impacting my daily life. Apparently, my ability to hold down a functional relationship is completely non-existent! You ever had the girl you loved for years look at you from across a dingy little diner table with nothing but platonic fondness as if nothing even happened?”

 

Of course, he did. But now was not the time for pointing out such technicalities.

 

“And finally, it turns out that the aforementioned ‘day-to-day’ is actually more like ‘forever’. I just managed to regain a functional everyday life but now instead I get to watch my friends and family die. Then their kids. And their kid’s kids. Et-fucking-cetera. Everything right now is breaking into pieces and…and”

 

Danny’s rants were now being broken up by gut-wrenching sobs. Plasmius tentatively closed the distance between them and wrapped his arms around the smaller halfa from behind, almost mirroring Danny’s restraint tactic from their first night out together. But this time, Danny made no attempt to fight him off. Choosing instead to dig her fingers into his forearms as they crossed over her chest.

 

“and…I don’t want any of this to last for eternity” she wept.

 

Plasmius remained silent and tightened his grip on her. There was nothing he could do to help her. He too had experienced the pain she was going through. It was raw, tormenting, and the only thing that could be done was to let it run its course. Danny’s fingers were leaving bruises in his skin, but he couldn’t bring himself to care.

 

In the dark and crumbling warehouse, Danny let out an agonising scream of frustration that echoed throughout the building. It took all the willpower that Plasmius had to not break down alongside her.

 


	6. Where Danny drinks her feelings and Vlad is open about his own

The days following the warehouse incident were odd to say the least. Danny was still reeling from the events and the fact that she had completely and utterly exposed her vulnerabilities to Vlad Masters. I guess that makes them kind of even.

 

She was grateful that Vlad had respected her space afterwards. But what was even more surprising was that he was keeping in close contact with her now. Now she woke up to casual texts that were…well, pleasant. Almost sweet. Small words of encouragement here and there. Other times they were just fun little comments such as how a particular council member was being an arse that afternoon. She’d respond in kind. Laughing at the mundane nature of Amity Park life. A strong contrast to the dread it had brought to her days beforehand.  The messages between the two of them brought a small smile to the halfa’s face and it had a lasting impact on her mood for the rest of the day.

 

 In addition, Danny’s improved mood provided the motivation she had needed to send Tucker her credentials. So much for sleeping on the decision. But what harm could it do? The worst that could happen was a long-distance rejection by some manager she’d never met.

 

Make no mistake, the issue of immortality was still on her mind. But now her brain was thinking of more productive ways of dealing with the problem. She didn’t want to call them ‘escape routes’ but they were certainly alternatives to haunting her childhood home for centuries to come. She played with the idea of jumping from country to country. With all the time in the world, Danny could afford to really explore the world. Each new place could be a fresh start after people began to catch on to her unchanging appearance. But then she’d need to deal with losing people all over again. The Ghost Zone was another idea. She can go ghost and live out the rest of her days with the rest of the supernatural population. But the enemies she’d made over her lifetime meant that the integration would be rough. Skulker was still at large and she was certain he was beyond pissed at her callous actions during their fight.

 

Okay fine, suicide had crossed her mind more than once. She could time things to end when she would have naturally passed on had she not been immortal. Though Danny wasn’t entirely sure if anything existed that could take out a ghost hybrid. Theories ranged from traditional methods being completely ineffective to leaving just her ghost form intact. Anything her parents created had a tendency to blow up in their faces. Besides, they were more interested in live examinations than necropsies. They didn’t successfully build anything that you would consider deadly. 

 

Too many options and too little feedback. Danny could talk to Vlad about this, but she felt like she’d dumped too much on the man already. She’d decided that he didn’t deserve to be a sponge for all of her problems. It was easier to maintain the casual friendship without tainting it with all the heavy stuff. Even if being held in that warehouse was the closest thing to feeling safe she’d had in a long time.

 

* * *

 

 

“Danny! Come in”, greeted Sam as she moved to the side to let Danny into her home.

 

“Hey Sam”, smiled Danny.

 

Sam’s apartment was very ‘Sam’. Modest furnishings to rebel against the overly glamorous childhood home she’d had while gothic paraphernalia decorated the free space. Sam made her way to the kitchen to prepare a fresh beverage for her visitor.

 

Danny went to take a seat on her couch but hissed out in pain as she tried to lower herself down. Healing abilities could only speed the process up by so much. Fractured ribs were fractured ribs.

 

“You doing alright?”, asked Sam with concern in her voice. “Did your parents’ inventions backfire badly again?”

 

“Hah, something like that”, lied Danny.

 

Sam walked over with two hot mugs of coffee and sat them down on the coffee table. Danny reached for her drink and softly sipped. Her thoughts crossed back to the time she’d visited Vlad at work. The coffee was cheap whereas Sam’s was of a decent bean quality. Yet for a reason she couldn’t quite put her finger on, Danny felt like something was missing here with Sam that wasn’t missing with Vlad. The atmosphere with Sam felt strange and unfamiliar despite their years of knowing each other. Hanging out with Vlad was new but considerably less awkward.

 

“So…to what do I owe the pleasure?”

 

Deciding against telling Sam the truth of the last month’s events, Danny went with the much safer small talk option.

 

“Tucker emailed me about a job opening. I sent my resume off to him the other day. So that’s pretty exciting I guess”

 

Was she trying to convince Sam of that? Or herself?

 

“Wow! That’s great Danny. You’ve been wanting to get out of your parent’s lab for ages”, exclaimed Sam.

 

“But I mean, it’d involve moving away. For like…a long time”

 

Sam laughed and took another sip of her coffee.

 

“Well that is kind of the point of applying for an interstate job, Danny”.

 

Danny was increasingly feeling uneasy. There was an answer she’d hoped to get out of today. But how to phrase the question was a challenge in of itself.

 

“Say, what would you say if I…”. Why was this so hard?

 

“Okay so ghosts are already dead right?” Strong start there. “And it would be ridiculous for ghosts to stop being ghosts because they’re ghosts. That’s what happens when you…uh you know? So, ghosts don’t age. Duh obviously. They don’t need to”.

 

“Danny, is there an end point to this?”, teased Sam.

 

“Would you consider immortality a good thing or a bad thing?”

 

Sam blinked a few times and sat her mug down. “That’s a bit random, Danny. What’s brought all this on? This is getting dangerously close to existential crisis territory and you’ve never looked further ahead than your next meal”.

 

The fumbling hybrid opened her mouth to respond but was cut off from the sound of Sam’s doorbell going off. The goth jumped up in surprise.

 

“He’s early!”

 

Wait, who’s early? And who is ‘he’?

 

Sam opened the door and beckoned in a guy that Danny had never met before. This complete stranger had unknowingly barged in on a particularly important conversation. Danny was totally getting around to her point with Sam. She just needed time. Time that this jerk had taken away from her. Of course, she now immediately hated Doorbell McJerkface.

 

“Danny, this is Justin. Justin – this is Danny. She’s just visiting for the afternoon”

 

Justin gave a warm smile and Danny hated him even more.

 

“This is the famous ‘Danny’? Sam talks about you a lot – great to meet you finally!”, he extended his hand. Danny took his hand in a shake that was firm enough to demonstrate her strength.

 

“Hah! Strong grip you got there!”, he shook his increasingly sore hand once Danny had released him. “Is that coffee? Do you mind if I?”

 

“Go right ahead, hun”

 

Hun? Oh god.

 

Justin leaned down to give a Sam a peck on the cheek and walked into the kitchen. Sam blushed lightly at the public display of affection and turned to Danny who was speechless, wearing her famous ‘wtf’ look.

 

“Justin is my company’s sales manager. Things only just recently started getting serious. Danny I –“

 

“No, it’s fine. I totally get it”, Danny interjected. She’d seen enough. Sam had well and truly moved on. She was well within her right to. But seeing it in person had brought that reality into focus. Everyone was going to move on eventually. Danny instantly felt forgettable and a wave of worthlessness washed over her. 

 

“I gotta head off anyway – I’ve got some errands to run. See ya, Justin”, she nodded politely at the confused man and made a beeline for the door. “Bye Sam. I’ll make a point of seeing you again in this lifetime”.

 

That last comment was a last-ditch effort to finish the conversation they started before Justin arrived. Danny wasn’t sure if Sam got the secondary meaning. It probably didn’t matter at this point. She needed a drink and a decent one at that. On her wages an alcohol-driven bender was out of the question at any of the town’s bars. Even the seedy ones. She wanted to be somewhere that felt safe and familiar. An idea sprung to mind.

 

_‘What are the chances that you have something strong enough to fix a bad day in those fancy cellars of yours? - DF’_

_‘You can have your pick of the 5-year-old casks, but I won’t open my vintage collection without an explanation of what constitutes as a ‘bad day’. Am I to expect you on my premises soon? – VM’_

_‘Soon as you send me the address, Fruit Loop! -DF’_

 

* * *

 

 

Vlad was actually excited to have Danny visit. She hadn’t seen his Amity Park property yet and upon receiving her message he’d begun to fanatically clean up anything that might constitute as a mess. Not that he was trying to impress her or anything. Vlad Masters simply had a reputation to maintain. He was a meticulous man with meticulous tastes. That was all.

 

Well that was the lie of the century if there was such a thing.

 

Truth be told he’d been obsessing over how both himself and the young halfa were the only two immortal humans on this plane of existence. Now that she was aware of the fact anyway. Were this some terrible romance novel he’d have laid claim to her by now, spurred on by ‘being destined to be together’ or some terrible drivel like that. Reality was hardly that clean cut.

 

Not that he was against the idea of having a companion to join him and provide relief to his otherwise lonely life. The choice needed to be hers. Locking up the girl and demanding her affections hadn’t worked in the past where he’d tried to make her turn against Jack. In fact, they often backfired terribly. Insanity, as they say, is attempting the same thing and expecting different results. No, he’d much prefer to have Danny around because she wanted to be around him. And as luck would have it, the other hybrid was on her way over of her own volition.  Vlad hadn’t felt this giddy since college.

 

A white furry mass dragged its body up against his leg and vocally protested to being ignored. Vlad gently picked up the feline and gave her a soft scratch under the chin. Danny would also find out that he’d taken her previous advice and actually acquired a cat. He was prepared for the inevitable teasing that would follow.

 

Placing the animal gently on the kitchen table, he fished out two crystal tumblers and a bottle of scotch from his favourite American distillery. Everything was ready for her arrival.

 

What he didn’t expect was that she’d phase right through his living room wall and give both himself and his cat an honest to god heart attack.

 

* * *

 

 

“I call bullshit!”

 

Danny pointed accusingly at her silver-haired drinking partner.

 

“I assure you I’m telling the truth!”, he took another sip of the amber hued liquid. “Your father then broke into the chemistry labs and stole several pieces of glassware all because we’d run out of paper cups”.

 

Danny snorted and doubled over in laughter. She was already well on her way to plastered. But to his credit, Vlad was a charismatic storyteller.

 

“And that’s not even the worst part. The labs were on the second floor and he thought that it’d be too obvious if he come out the way he got in. We then spent the rest of the night trying to get the idiot out of a tree he’d attempted to use to escape”.

 

 

Vlad was thoroughly enjoying the small act of revenge towards his college friend by providing his daughter with a number of embarrassing stories. That that, Jack - you insufferable buffoon.

 

Meanwhile he was also enjoying watching Danny laugh to the point of tears. He was the one making her smile so hard that she couldn’t talk properly between fits. He was pretty proud of that.

 

“But you know what I think, Fruit Loop?”, Danny began, “I reckon that deep down you still care about my dad”. Vlad smiled and fixated his gaze on the glass in his hands.

 

“I suppose you’re not entirely wrong. Very observant, Little Badger”.

 

“So why the terrible flirting with my mom?”, Danny genuinely asked.

 

“Out of habit I suppose”, Vlad took another sip of scotch before continuing. “I just want to get a stupid rise out of Jack. He’s so happy. Its infuriating…and my flirting isn’t terrible – thank you very much”

 

“Oh, I beg to differ – I’ve seen it. You’re the definition of cringe”. Danny poked her tongue out teasingly and jabbed a finger in Vlad’s shoulder for emphasis.

 

“Alright then, let’s hear your great pearls of wisdom for the dating scene then!”, he challenged.

 

Now it was Danny’s turn to fidget with her own drink. “Dude I’m just a clueless as you are. You save the person’s life, go to a couple of high school dances and somehow make that last 4 years before it all goes down the drain”. She finished that last comment with a long drink.

 

“That Samantha girl I take it?”

 

Danny’s silence answered his question.

 

“You seem to have a lot of bottled up feelings towards your ex?”, he suggested. Obviously referring to the warehouse incident.

 

“I don’t still have feelings for her if that’s what you’re suggesting”. Vlad was sceptical and raised a questioning eyebrow.

 

“It’s just that…it sucks being told that you’re someone’s universe and then later down the track they replace you like you’re nothing. I’m sorry – I shouldn’t be dumping this on you. You’ve got plenty of your own shit to deal with…”

 

Vlad nodded sincerely and placed a tender hand Danny’s shoulder.

 

“Don’t be ridiculous. And don’t believe for a second that you’re replaceable, Danielle”. Smooth going there, Vlad. You couldn’t have made it any less subtle even if you tried. Thankfully Danny was too intoxicated to notice the subtext.

 

“Can’t replace what never goes away! Yay…”. She sarcastically cheered. “Here’s to not-dying! Or changing at all”. Danny held her drink up and lightly hit it against Vlad’s own tumbler.

 

“Now, that’s not entirely true…you could grow your hair out?”, Vlad suggested as he clutched for positivity straws.

 

It was now Danny’s turn to be sceptical. “While you haven’t had a haircut in years?”. Danny leaned in and reached around to Vlad’s ponytail. The man shuffled uncomfortably at the close contact and tried to force down the blush that was climbing his neck. With a triumphant pull, Danny removed the elastic and allowed Vlad’s hair to fall away naturally. Silver locks framed his face in a way that Danny would describe as being genuinely beautiful.

 

 

 

“You can close your mouth now”, said a very embarrassed Vlad.

 

She hadn’t realised she’d been gaping. Danny shuffled back into her corner of the couch and continued to make short work of her drink. Each sip sending the burning liquid down her throat and consequentially making the day’s dramas increasingly irrelevant.

 

 

“What do you suppose it’ll be like – being the only two immortal people on the planet?”

 

“Assuming your father doesn’t create yet another catastrophe?”

 

Both chuckled, continuing to ignore the tension that was building up insidiously.

 

“You would have to put up with this brat. I could drive you insane in no time” Danny grinned like the goofball that she was and pointed to herself. Vlad’s expression softened at her.

 

“I don’t imagine it would be all that bad. A lot of people would give their short fleeting lives to spend the majority of them with a woman as amazing as you are”. Welcome back, sexual tension.

 

“…amazing?” questioned Danny. She was unsure of this sudden compliment, but she wanted – needed to hear the end of it.

 

“You know – intelligent, genuine, sweet, brave, and stubborn to a fault. You’re not a brat. Sometimes, but not all always”. Vlad slurred. There was no filter on his thoughts after his 8th standard drink. Only after allowing the words leave his mouth did he realise the real impact of his sentiments. This tendency he had of being an open book to Danny was going to be the death of him.

 

Danny took a moment to absorb those words. This was basically a confession. Albeit a drunk one but a confession nonetheless. She was sure of it. Setting her drink down on the table, she edged closer towards the nervous man. A soft hand came up to run through Vlad’s long hair, earning a whimper from the billionaire. Vlad’s hand immediately shot up and grabbed Danny’s wrist firmly.

 

“We shouldn’t be doing this”, he said with finality.

 

Wait, had she misread the situation entirely? None of this made any sense.

 

“Hold on, a second ago you were all sweet talk. What the hell gives?”, Danny demanded.

 

Vlad pushed her arm back and stood up from his seat. Taking the previously discarded elastic band, he gathered up the mess of hair on his head and returned it to the tied-up style he preferred.

 

“We’ve both been drinking so nothing that we say should be taken seriously. This was fun but its late and I have work tomorrow morning.”

 

Well that hurt like being hit in the gut. With a cannon. A cannon made from knives. Cannon-knives. Danny forced herself up from the couch but was met with a rotating room and a very sickly stomach. Maybe the idiot had a point on that drinking part.

 

Vlad noticed Danny’s cognitive impairment and steadied her with a strong hand on either shoulder.

 

“It’s not safe to send you home in this state – ghost or human. You can take the guest room”. He carefully guided the plastered hybrid to the bedroom and brought her to the bed. Without bothering to remove her clothes, Danny promptly threw herself over the covers. Thankfully it seemed that laying down kept the world from spinning and her stomach from attempting an escape act. A part of her still wanted to contest Vlad’s opinions on their relationship but the other half had well and truly called it in. Within minutes, the halfa had passed out with a warm line of drool slowly soaking into Vlad’s fresh pillow.

 

 Meanwhile, Vlad managed to navigate to his own room and promptly closed the door behind him. What the hell had he been thinking? The confession was bad enough, but the deflection made him feel worse. He wanted nothing more than to feel Danny’s hand against his cheek again. The feeling of her fingers in his hair had felt like heaven. But the timing couldn’t have been more wrong. One regretful night could ruin everything. If they’d escalated things, then surely the morning after would have serious implications. Vlad was certain that his heart wouldn’t survive the look of shame from Danny as he became another bad drunken decision.

 

Fisting his hand, Vlad slammed it into the back of the door in frustration. His California king-sized bed was once again cold and uninviting. Sleep struggled to overtake him that night. His mind still longingly fixated on the woman sleeping meters away from him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With all the build up coming to close we can finally get somewhere with all this. My apologies for the excessively long chapter 6. It looked a lot shorter as a draft. 
> 
> Chapter 7 is halfway finished and I've been doing little sketches for it in my free time. Two more chapters to go and I can smack a 'complete' label on this thing.


	7. Where Danny makes a choice and Vlad comes clean

Vlad definitely had a valid point about the amount that they’d drunk that night. Both hybrids stumbled into the living room of Vlad’s apartment the next morning with mild hangovers complete with pounding headaches. Danny mumbled a half-assed ‘g’morning’ and sat down at the island bench. Burying her hands in her thick and messy hair, she was adamant to avoid making such a careless decision again during a weekday. Turns out that Vlad had a very similar series of thoughts going through his own head.

 

Amity Park’s mayor had somehow managed to drag himself into his regular business attire. It had taken him several attempts to get both legs through the correct pants leg, but he made it in the end. He glanced over at the younger halfa curled up in on herself with sympathy.

 

“Tea?”, he offered. Pouring water into the Smeg kettle and setting it to boil.

 

 

“Mmhmm”, Danny agreed. Head now resting on folded arms across the bench.

 

Maddie the cat took that exact moment to perch herself up on the counter. Her loud complaints about her tardy breakfast held no regard for the two people in the room. Danny looked up from her self-pity to take in the fact that there was a cat in front of her.

 

 

 

“You got a cat?”, she accused lightly. “Why am I only hearing about this now?”

 

“I’m allowed to have some secrets, my dear”. Vlad’s phone suddenly let out a string of terribly loud jingles that caused both people to flinch violently. It was his alarm for the morning. Vlad was officially running late for once. The hungover man swore under his breath and stumbled around, throwing his unfinished tea into the sink and began the process of hunting down his black oxford shoes.

 

Danny sat back at watched the hilarious sight before her. Dishevelled Vlad was pretty cute. But the rejection from last night was still raw and painful. Maddie bunted her head against Danny, still hungry and growing increasingly annoyed that no one was doing anything about it.

 

“Alright, alright”, Danny affectionately gave the cat a scratch on her head and moved up from her seat.

 

“Vlad!”, she called out as monosyllabic as possible. “Cat food! Where?”

 

“Pantry! Top left!”, he returned with equal curtness.

 

It took some rummaging around but eventually Danny located the bag of dry food. Checking the feeding guide and making an incredibly rough estimation about the feline’s weight (the fur made it hard to guess), she poured a small amount into a dish and sat it down on what she assumed was the animal’s feeding mat.

 

The cat was more than pleased with the progression of events and trotted up to the food with her tail held high. That was one issue solved, thought Danny to herself. Tick that one off the mile-long list.

 

She was in desperate need of a shower, but it felt weird to attempt to clean up here. Danny figured that an invisible and intangible flight back home would be the best option. With the cat taken care of and her tea mug drained and placed in the sink, Danny went through a quick stocktake to ensure she had all her necessities.

 

Phone. Wallet. Keys. Dignity.

 

_‘3 out of 4 ain’t bad’._

 

It would be rude to leave without tell Vlad. She left the kitchen to locate him and found the man out of breath and holding a black shoe in each hand. Guess he found those alright.

 

“I’m uh…gonna split”

 

“Yes. Yes of cour – Maddie!?”

 

“Already fed”, Danny answered his unspoken question.

 

“Oh…thankyou”, he managed a smile grateful smile and Danny couldn’t help but reciprocate it. Even hungover the guy knew how to dress to impress. There was only one thing out of place that caught her eye.

 

“Your tie isn’t…”

 

Vlad’s eyes shot down to his red suit tie and noticed that it remained draped over his neck with his shirt collar still stuck up. It had completely escaped his mind in the rush and now he had no free hands to rectify the issue.

 

“Butter biscuits!”

 

Danny chuckled softly and took each end of the tie and got to work fixing it. It was a simple decorative knot. Nothing to write home about, but it would suffice for the meantime. Dexterous hands centred the accessory and returned the shirt collar to its correct position.

 

“There. All ready for another day of world domination plans”, she joked.

 

This awkward domestic moment didn’t go unnoticed by either of them. But as far as Danny was concerned, it was just one in a long line of mixed signals that she wasn’t prepared to decipher right now. Vlad on the other hand, felt a sense of sad longing at a future consisting of mornings exactly like this one. Sans the headache and churning stomach.

Danny took a step back and transformed. Nodding goodbye, she activated her invisibility and promptly phased out of the walls to the fresh morning air of Amity Park.

 

 

* * *

 

It really shouldn’t have surprised Danny that she’d be punished for shirking her shift as soon as she got home. Her mother was a fair boss, but her consequences could be severe if she deemed them worthy enough. So as a result of Danny being M.I.A since lunchtime yesterday, she’d been tasked with the drafting reviewing of the Fenton Works grant applications.

 

Hurray. Painful was an understatement for describing this assignment. Grant applications were never a fun time of the year for anyone. The pressure was felt by everyone in the household. Her father became more focused, which was very out of character for him. Her mother’s fuse was shortened significantly, and god help the poor person who tipped Maddie over the edge. Meanwhile Danny was the designated desk jockey combined with personal assistant. She let out a sigh of defeat and ran a shaky hand threw her hair. Hunching over a desk for hours at a time was going to create some serious implications for her spine one day. As soon as her break clocked over, a very tired and desperate Danny, with her best Hunchback impression, made a hasty retreat from the lab.

 

Danny wouldn’t consider herself a cook by any definition of the word. Her meals, if she was in charge of them, were either premade or consisted of a variety of condiments between two pieces of bread. Today would be the latter option. Piling on whatever she could find in the fridge that hadn’t already expired, Danny crafted herself a nutrition-nightmare of a sandwich. The girl was quite proud of it honestly. If only a little concerned about its impact on her health. Should she even care about her health if she was immortal? Ghosts didn’t really suffer from heart disease or diabetes. That was more of an ‘completely alive person’ problem. That’s one point to half-dead privilege.

 

Taking a bite out of her death-trap of a meal, her thoughts travelled back to Vlad. The man was downright infuriating. At first, he’d been ready to chuck her in a Fenton Thermos and send her to the Ghost Zone permanently. Then things somehow evolved to a strange but otherwise pleasant friendship that consisted of light insults and mulling over coffee. But then he had to ruin it with feelings. Feelings that she may or may not have reciprocated. Okay, still reciprocated. But his rejection still confused the hell out of her. Maybe he really wasn’t ready to pursue anything further and his words to her that night were purely platonic. If that was the case, the ass-hat could have just gone with ‘hey, you’re a cool dude’ and saved her the headache and heartache.

 

No wait, this time the heartache was reflux. This sandwich was a very bad idea.

 

Promptly binning the offended food, she floundered for a glass of water and drank the whole thing without taking a single breath. Frankly the most immediate threat to her health was staying in Amity Park. Everything that she’d let out during that night at the warehouse were still ongoing issues and for as long as she stayed at home there was no way to get a break from it all. A vacation wouldn’t be uncalled for but there was no way her parents would let her go during grant season with such a flimsy reason.

 

Her phone let off an email alert. Danny had recently got around to synchronising her email to her mobile at an attempt to be more responsible with her messaging. Well, there was some good news – it was Tucker. He’d received and passed on her credentials and they were well received by their hiring manager. Her stomach did a little flip of excitement as she continued to scroll through for more information.

 

They wanted to meet her. Not just for an interview but a trial period. The recommendations that Tucker had given them must have been amazing. God, she owed that man so many favours. Vacation be damned – she could go to San Francisco!

 

San Francisco. For at least several weeks to months. And what if she was successful? Then it would be a permanent move. Sure, it wouldn’t be so lonely because she already had one friend over there. But that didn’t mean she wouldn’t miss certain people in this town. It would be the first time she’d move out of home and no longer be greeted with the constant company of her parents. It also meant she’d be moving away from Vlad. Her heart sank at that realisation. To make matters worse, a small insecure thought wormed its way into her thoughts: would it even be that big of a deal to him? Pushing those feelings back down in her mind, Danny knew that she needed to run this by someone considerably more experienced than she was. Mom and Dad were out of the question right now due to the grant application stress. Swiping her phone over to the contacts list, Danny hoped that Jazz had a handful of free minutes available.

 

* * *

 

 

“That’s amazing, Danny! Congratulations!”, her bubbly red-headed sister beamed from over the phone. Jazz Fenton – forever the go-getting career girl of the family.

 

“Thanks, Jazz”, Danny couldn’t help but smile at her enthusiasm. “But it’s a massive decision. I have idea if I’m even ready to move out of home, never mind moving to a new state”.

 

Jazz hummed in agreement. “I totally get it. But Danny, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity – you’d be crazy not to take it”.

 

Danny’s entire life had been nothing but a series of ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunities. For once, it’d be nice to have a few ‘multiple times during your life so there’s no pressure whatsoever’ moments from time to time.

 

“I mean”, Danny began. “I’d be leaving a lot of people behind if I did”. More like one person. Let’s be honest with ourselves at least.

 

“Danny, every single one of yours friends love you. They’d want you to be happy. Besides, you’ve already given up so much for Amity Park”, Jazz said sadly. “Don’t you think it’s about time that you put yourself first for once?”

 

Danny could have told her sister everything that had occurred over the last few months. She could tell her about Vlad. About Skulker. The fact that she’d caused hundreds of thousands in property damage in a fit of rage one night and almost kissed her arch nemesis while drunk at his house. But Danny chose not to. Even if she was prepared to come clean to Jazz about this year’s events, she felt it was more of an in-person conversation.

 

“Well, I have been needing to get away for a while to…sort through some things”, Danny half-lied.

 

“Then there’s your answer!”, Jazz replied. “So sorry, Danny but I gotta go – this thesis won’t write itself, you know?”. Danny laughed at her sister’s insistence and quickly said goodbye before hanging up. Folding her hands behind her head, Danny let out a breath she’d been holding for too long. That was that, it seemed. Now all she needed to do was break the news to Mom and Dad. Here’s hoping they were in a congratulatory mood.

 

* * *

 

When Vlad returns home from work that evening he’s welcomed with a disappointing silence.

 

Of course, Danny isn’t here. That would be unrealistic. But that doesn’t stop the sad pit in his stomach making itself known. Maddie is quick to greet her master as he walks through the door and purrs happily as she moves around his legs. Vlad leans down to pick up the sweet animal and she responds by bunting her head up under his chin in contentment. Vlad remembers how Danny had taken it upon herself to feed his beloved pet while he was desperately trying to sort out his wardrobe malfunction. His heart swells even further at the memory of her tender hands fixing his neck tie and collar before she left to return home. That morning had felt so natural to him. As if they’d been doing that routine for years. And now he had returned to a place that felt considerably less like a home with a certain monochromatic girl missing.

 

Setting Maddie down on the kitchen counter, Vlad moves around the kitchen to be preparing a dinner for one. That sounded more depressing the more he thought about it. His mobile suddenly buzzed violently on the counter and startled Maddie enough to drive the cat to leap off and onto the floor. The disgruntled man answered the call after several rings indicated that his caller wasn’t someone who gave up easily.

 

What a surprise - it was Jack Fenton.

 

“Jack, to what do I owe the pleasure?”, asked Vlad with sarcasm dripping from his voice.

 

“Got any plans tonight? We’re having a big celebration and we’d love it if you could come around!”, Jack boasted.

 

“What’s the occasion, Jack?”. Vlad’s curiosity had peaked somewhat.

 

“Come over and find out, V-Man”. It wasn’t typical of Jack to be so secretive. Now Vlad was definitely intrigued.

 

“Very well, I will make my way over soon”

 

Regardless of the dinner’s cause, visiting Jack and Maddie meant that Vlad would likely run into Danny again. That prospect was enough to motivate the man to not drink away his evening alone with just a cat for companionship. Vlad ensured that Maddie had enough food and water available to her for the night before leaving. Despite his initial exhaustion, there was a new spring in his step as he made his way to Fenton Works.

* * *

“V-Man!”, Jack brought his friend into a painful bear hug that squeezed all the reserve oxygen out of the poor silver-haired man.

 

“L-let go y-you buffoon!”, Vlad gasped out as he clawed at Jack’s enormous arms.

 

Jack set Vlad back down to the floor like a ragdoll. Leave it up to Jack to forget about basic bodily functions such as breathing. Thankfully Maddie’s welcome was much less brutal and considerably more civilised than her husband.

 

The three of them made their way to the kitchen where Maddie had prepared a modest yet nonetheless amazing meal for her family. The woman had a talent for cooking that no doubt stemmed from her exemplary chemistry background. Maddie was someone who worked with precision and was damn proud of it.

 

Vlad’s concerns regarding the whereabouts of Danny were quickly answered by the woman entering the room with a handful of glasses in one hand and a white wine in the other.

 

“Hey Vladdie, been a while”, she smiled warmly and caused the man to smile back in response. Each person sat in their designated spot with Danny and Vlad in direct opposition to each other.

 

“You mentioned this was a celebratory event? Did that pet project of yours finally take off?”, Vlad questioned as he set his napkin down.

 

“Not this time – it’s all about Danny tonight!”

 

Vlad’s gaze turned to Danny questioningly. Danny shifted in her seat awkwardly and passed her glass over to her mother who had begun serving up the Chardonnay she’d picked out. She actually hadn’t wanted to invite Vlad over in the first place, but her dad had insisted on it. Her original plan was to tell him of her decision to leave in-person and definitely not at a Fenton family dinner. But now there was no Plan A and all she could do was hope for the best as she explained herself to the man who had been kept in the dark by her own volition.

 

“I got a job offer”, she paused, “it’s in San Francisco”.

 

Vlad’s focus was now entirely on Danny. His eyes stared critically as though she’d taken the knife on her plate and thrown it clean into his gut.

 

“I see”, he began. “And when will you be leaving?”. Maddie and Jack were oblivious as always, but Danny could read the hurt in his question. This night was a terrible idea and she silently cursed her father for not actually putting his ego aside.

 

“Tomorrow. A hotel has been booked for the duration of the trial period so last-minute accommodation is sorted, I guess”. She took another sip of wine and tried her best to not break under Vlad’s gaze.

 

“Well, you have my salutations, Danielle. I certainly hope it works out well for you”. Vlad put an extra emphasis on his last words. He didn’t care if it sounded childish. His heart was being crushed the longer he thought of his Little Badger being utterly and entirely out of reach.  The fact that he hadn’t heard of these plans of hers until now only fuelled the feelings of betrayal that were welling up inside him. Vlad had assumed that Danny would be open with him about such a decision, but it seemed that he was incorrect once again. His eyes left her form and he focused them entirely on the food in front of him. He couldn’t stand to look at her right now or risk an outburst in front of Jack and Maddie.

 

Danny meanwhile did the same. Neither of her parents read the room correctly and continued talking at the two uncomfortably quiet ghost hybrids. On the surface the dinner went smoothly. Had either Maddie or Jack been capable of reading the minds of their daughter or their friend then they’d know that the event was progressing anything but smoothly.

 

* * *

 

As soon as everyone had finished their meals, Danny had made a feeble attempt at an excuse to go upstairs to use the bathroom. The tension between herself and Vlad was overwhelming, and she needed a way out before things escalated in front of her parents.

 

Closing the bathroom door behind her, she leaned back, closed her eyes and groaned in frustration. She’d eventually have to face Vlad downstairs but for now she could pretend that nothing was wrong. This small room was safe and closed off from the outside world. All she had wanted to do was to get out of Amity Park and have some time away from…everything. Was that seriously too much to ask?

 

A firm knock came from the other side of the door she was leaning on. Was it also too much to ask for some goddamn privacy in this house? She swung open the door angrily, but her mood dissipated as soon as she realised that Vlad was the one interrupting her little sulking party. Danny barely got a word out before she was shoved back into the bathroom by the Mayor who quickly shut the door behind them.

 

“If you needed to use the bathroom that urgently then you need to learn to use your words”, said Danny sarcastically.

 

“I could say the same to you”, replied Vlad. Obviously still pissed off for a number of reasons.

 

“I swear the dinner was Dad’s idea. I wasn’t going to tell you like this”, Danny tried desperately to explain the circumstances that lead them here but to no avail.

 

“And when exactly did you plan to tell me?”

 

They were both now whisper-yelling at each other. Neither party was prepared to back down from this argument.

 

“Not in my freaking bathroom for one! And I don’t understand why you’re being such an arse about this. We both knew I needed a better job and now I potentially have one. Frankly, you should be ecstatic!”

 

“It had to be in San Francisco?!”

 

“I didn’t choose the American economic growth patterns, Fruit-Loop!”

 

 Vlad pinched his eyebrows and groaned. The girl was infuriating. She must have inherited a similar level of density from her father.

 

“If this is about the other night…”, he began to ask but was instantly cut off.

 

“No! No, it’s not about that”, she assured him. “It’s just that…this town is slowly killing me – no pun intended. I feel like there’s nothing here for me anymore I need to get away. Even if it is just temporary, I can’t stand being in this same routine day in and day out with nothing to show for it”.

 

“Is that what we are? A routine?”

 

Danny blinked a few times at that allegation. “What? No of course no – wait, what does that have to do with anything? You’re worried about our _friendship_? There’s a thing called ‘email’ you know”.

 

If you had asked Danny several months ago where she saw her relationship with Vlad Masters going, being pushed up against a bathroom wall in one of the most passionate kisses of her life would be like…halfway down the list of possibilities. The girl had no time to register her head smacking the plaster wall painfully because his lips on hers put them in a world of their own.

 

Neither Danny or Vlad made an effort to silence the moans that they made as they explored each other’s mouths. Tongues danced together in the heat of their mouths as Vlad cupped Danny’s cheeks in each hand, holding her in place. His beard brushed up against her soft skin and only served to make her whimper in response. Danny’s hands had flown up to his luscious long hair and made quick work of undoing his ponytail. She let out a satisfied moan as she threaded her hands through the silver tendrils that she’d admittedly fantasised about on occasion. Vlad let out an uncontrolled whine as her nails dragged their way over his scalp and instinctively ground his hips into her own. Fire core or not, the action sent a wave of pleasurable heat between the two hybrids as the thick walls of sexual tension were slowly crumbling around them.

 

When Vlad finally realised that their absences would soon be questioned, he reluctantly pulled away from Danny. Both halfas were panting by that point, their foreheads leaning against each other’s to try and retain the closeness they’d experienced moments ago. Danny willed her eyes to open and take in the man before her. God, he was beautiful. She brought a hand up to gently stroke the side of his face, mirroring her actions back when they had been drinking together. Only this time, instead of pushing her away, Vlad held her hand to his face as though she would disappear at any moment. 

 

 

“I can’t force you to stay”, Vlad finally said after a moment of intimate silence between the two of them. “But I want you to know that there’s still something here left for you, if you do choose to come back”.

 

He quickly retied his hair and exited the bathroom without a second glance at the girl he left behind. Danny stood in shock as a wave of uncertainty and sadness replaced the loving affection she’d become unknowingly addicted to at that moment. Her arms came up to wrap themselves around her quivering form to provide what little comfort she could for herself. That kiss was the most amazing thing she had ever experienced. More importantly, Vlad’s feelings for her were crystal clear. But the timing could not have been worse. Danny’s plane ticket was sitting on her bedside table. Come tomorrow, she would no longer be a resident of Amity Park.  

 

* * *

 

 

It was late when Vlad finally returned home to his cat and functional alcoholism. He collapsed at the kitchen counter and reached for the bottle he’d left there previously. It was the same one that he’d shared with Danny. He shakily poured a shot and downed it in one go, quickly replacing it with another. And then another.

 

His actions tonight were stupid to say the least. But the knowledge that Danny was leaving at caused all his resolve to crumble at once. He was a fool for allowing himself to become attached so quickly. An idiot for pushing her away despite her reciprocated feelings. And an imbecile for only just coming clean the night before she leaves.

 

 Vlad hadn’t realised that he had been shaking until he struggled to properly pour himself another shot. He also hadn’t realised that he’d been crying until he noticed the droplets on the marble countertop.


	8. Where Danny gets a new job and Vlad approves greatly

Life continued to go on as per normal in Amity Park. Vlad would wake up each morning at the same time, sometimes earlier if Maddie had anything to do with it. He would slowly meander out to the kitchen, brew a cup of tea and collect the morning newspaper. Maddie would get her dry food and be placated for the rest of the day, choosing to spend most of her morning sunbathing by the windows.

 

A new addition to his routine was the regular checking of his inbox as soon as he turned his phone on. Danny had made good on her promise somewhat and continued to stay in contact while she lived and worked in San Francisco. But what had been once daily updates slowly spread out into days and then maybe once every couple of weeks if he was lucky. This month in particular was a prime example: he had yet to hear anything from the girl.

 

To prevent destructive boredom between his regular work hours, Vlad had dived straight back into research as a part-time hobby. Countless weekends were spent in his labs, often to the point of him passing out for the night over a bench on top of countless reports. He missed his Little Badger terribly. During particularly vulnerable nights he’d wished openly that she’d phase through the walls, ransack his fridge and not-so-subtlety demand his attention like the brat he knew her to be. Alas, those wishes always went unanswered.

 

This morning however deviated slightly from the norm. His phone began vibrating again and Vlad that expected it was another message or email from any number of his contacts. Glancing down at the screen and setting his tea mug down, Vlad’s eyes lit up at the contact information that was on display and clear as crystal.

 

Danielle Fenton.  

 

He fumbled over the device before finally managing to swipe the screen successfully and answer Danny’s call.

 

“Danielle?”, he answered almost a little too desperately.

 

“Hey Vladdie”, chirped Danny on the other end. The nerve of that girl for being so damn cheery this early in the morning. “Did I catch you at a bad time?”

 

“N-not at all”, Maddie came up to attempt an interruption and Vlad swatted her away gently. “Is everything alright?”

 

“Oh yeah it’s fine. Sorry I went AWOL on you the last couple of weeks – things have been kind of hectic”

 

“I assumed that was the case”. Liar. “How is the job going? Your probation period should be finished by now, am I correct?”

 

Over the phone he heard Danny mumble as if shrugging in response. “The hours were long. I mean, it wasn’t boring – that’s for sure! But Danny needs her 9 hours of sleep and a 10 to 12-hour work day doesn’t really allow for that”.

 

Vlad smiled at her use of speaking in the third person. She was a complete dork.

 

_‘Should be his dork’,_ corrected his brain.

 

“But the good news is that I had the chance to find a better suited profession, believe it or not”, said Danny.

 

Vlad’s heart sank. She found a new job over there. Now the chance of her returning to Amity Park were slim to none. Nevertheless, he did his best to sound supportive.

 

“Oh? Don’t keep us in suspense”, he forced out.

 

“It’s in politics. I’ll be taking one hell of a pay cut, sure. But the hours are flexible, and I have a feeling it’s got a lot of potential growth. I’m actually just heading to apply for it now”

 

Vlad’s doorbell rang out loudly. With his phone still to his ear, he stalked over to the door with a speech in his mind about how inappropriate it was to have visitors before 8am on a Monday morning.

 

He never did get to use that speech.

 

To Vlad’s indescribable joy, Danny Fenton was standing at his front door with the widest grin on her face. She was dressed in a casual outfit consisting of an oversized hoodie, skinny jeans and old canvas sneakers. Vlad noticed that her hair had grown out long enough to require a small ponytail of her very own. She was by far the most gorgeous thing he’d ever laid eyes on. Danny produced a single A4 sized paper from her pockets and flashed it at him.

 

It was the job listing for an assistant he’d put out recently.

 

“I see you took my advice about the whole assistant thing. Are applications still open?”

Danny let out a small yelp as she was hauled by the outstretched arm into Vlad’s home.

 

* * *

 

 

Danny gasped as Vlad’s lips instantly connected with her own as the silver-haired man pulled her tightly into a searing kiss. Vlad was determined to show Danny just how much he’d missed her and how much he was committed to never letting the hybrid leave again. Danny however, recovered much more quickly than she did during the bathroom incident and ensured that this time it was Vlad who got pushed up against the wall and hit his stupid gorgeous head. Not that he complained. Rather, the approving groan he let out was more than enough of a green light.

Danny’s hands clawed at Vlad’s meticulous outfit and managed to undo the offending buttons that stopped her access to the rest of his broad chest. Vlad offered his assistance by shrugging off his blazer and allowing it to fall to the floor, forgotten instantly. Soon, the billionaire was arching his back against the wall as the younger halfa trailed her warm, wet tongue up his neck in a predatory tease. She attacked the sensitive skin behind his ear and nipped her way back down to his collar bone. Meanwhile, his fingers dug into her arms as he tried to steady himself while his knees grew weak.

Returning the favour, Vlad ducked his head and lightly pulled back on Danny’s hair which earned him a loud moan that only grew louder as he too explored the nape of her neck. Each nip, lick, and bite sent a surge of warmth deep within Danny. To keep herself stable, she threaded her arms over his strong neck and grabbed a handful of silver hair, holding him as close as he could physically get.

“Bedroom…”, Danny groaned during Vlad’s relentless assault on her sensitive flesh. “Kitchen…don’t care – just not hallway”. Vlad murmured an agreement into her neck and came up once again to ravish her mouth while guiding her back towards the rest of the house.

Vlad’s crisp white shirt came off quickly with a combination of Danny’s strength and weak button threads. Under any other circumstances, Vlad would have angrily protested to the destruction of one of his cotton shirts but alas these weren’t ordinary circumstances. Danny took a step back to admire the man’s naked torso properly. The suits he favoured had hinted to a certain amount of muscular definition and the outlandish prank she’d played during high school involving an invisible bathroom wall had further confirmed it. But it was different seeing him like this now. Now, it sent shivers of pleasure up her spine as she moved her hands over his defined chest and lean abdominals, taking in every curvature of muscle and committing it to memory.

“You’re a little over-dressed, my dear”, Vlad coyly whispered into her ear. His long fingers threaded their way up under her shirt and hoodie before bunching up the material and pulling it up and over Danny’s head in one motion. It was now Vlad’s turn to take in the woman he had before him. Emphasis on the woman part. Danny’s choice in wardrobe left almost too much to the imagination. The girl preferred to dress for comfort and ease of motion – especially considering her ghost-hunting side job. A job which by the looks of it, had done more for her body than any amount of high school gym classes could ever hope to achieve. Calloused hands ghosted over her small shoulders, trailing along her sides before cupping her firm abdomen and making their way up to her bra-clad breasts.

Danny giggled at his ministrations before taking one of his hands in her own and leading the man to the closest bedroom she could identify. She cupped his face tenderly and kissed him before turning him around and, with a surprising amount of power, pushed him onto the bed. Vlad could only laugh in response to being man-handled like this Leave it up to Danny Phantom to be as playful in bed as she was in battle.

“Hope you don’t mind”, Danny reached around and unclasped her bra before throwing it out of the way, “but it’s been kind of a long couple of months of pining and you I can’t do ‘patience’”

 

Vlad sat back and watched in awe as she undid the button on her low-rise jeans and slid them down before finally stepping out of them flawlessly. Raising an eyebrow at his gaping mouth, she strutted over and proceeded to straddle Vlad’s lap. At some point, Vlad eventually found his voice.

 

“Wouldn’t have it any other way”

 

Leaning down, Vlad took one exposed nipple into his mouth while providing equal treatment to the other with his free hand. Danny gasped lightly and once again held him in place with his hair while she arched her chest up into his touch. His mouth was warm, and his tongue was more than capable of doing some things. Each flick and suck of her pink buds caused more warmth to pool deep within her.

 

By now Danny knew she was completely drenched. Her groin was pulsing with anticipation and it was becoming almost painful to leave that part neglected for much longer. With Vlad’s focus still on her chest, Danny made her point by grinding down feverishly on his lap. The sudden friction pulled Vlad away from her breasts with a loud gasp. If his pants were uncomfortably tight before then it was close to torture now. Danny’s juices were coating his suit pants where his erection was clearly strained and twitching under the fabric.

  

“Who’s overdressed now?”, smirked Danny. She removed herself from his lap and made quick work of undoing his leather belt. Tailored suit pants were then finally discarded well away from the bed. Not that he’d be needing them anytime soon. Vlad’s hard member was now free and at the mercy of the young ghost hybrid. Kneeling down between his legs, Danny maintained eye contact as one hand came up to cup his balls gently, the other grasping the base of the shift. Vlad’s eyes closed in concentration as he let his head drop back, allowing himself to experience having Danny Fenton touching him.

 

It wasn’t until the flat of Danny’s tongue dragged itself up from underneath his cock to its swollen head that he permitted the string of curses and whimpers to come forth. Satisfied with his reaction, Danny proceeded to experiment further to find out what made her lover squirm.

 

Hollowing out her cheeks, Danny prepared to have her first taste of Vlad Masters. Her mouth glided smoothly over the engorged head and opened further to accommodate the width of the shaft. She timed each dipping motion with her hand’s soft massages on his balls. By this point, Vlad was a quivering mess that was flushed with arousal.

Vlad’s hands reached down and lifted the hybrid up under her arms, bringing her back to standing. If she continued, then he was certain the night would end too early. He’d waited too long for this to finish on a premature note. Wrapping his arms around her waist, Vlad guided Danny down to the mattress. Each of them leaving soft and tender kisses on each other as they moved into position.

 

Danny spread her legs invitingly and brought her ankles up to hook behind Vlad’s thighs as he positioned himself at her entrance. Her hands grasped his shoulders firmly as she primed herself. Despite his overwhelming desire, Vlad tenderly and slowly pushed himself into Danny’s tight warmth and both hybrids moaned lovingly at the connection.

 

“You have no idea how much I’ve wanted this, Little Badger”. Vlad buried his face into Danny’s neck as the feeling of having her around him was almost overwhelming.

 

“I missed you too, Fruit Loop”, replied Danny.

 

Hips were moving against each passionately as each thrust was met in perfect timing. Danny was relishing having Vlad in her. Her time spent in San Francisco had only added fuel to the fire that was set after her last meal in Amity Park. Time spent away from the town had given her a lot to think about. Especially in regard to her relationship to Vlad. At the end of her probation period, she’d been offered a permanent contract but turned it down. Danny Fenton was going to be living for an eternity in this world. And now she finally knew that she wanted to be spending that eternity with her arch-enemy turned love. The money she’d earned during her interstate adventure was more than enough to buy a last-minute ticket back home. As far as good decisions went, this had taken first place.

 

Vlad’s thrusts were becoming increasingly erratic as he reached his peak. Both of them were panting heavily as Danny clung desperately to Vlad as he rode her. One of Danny’s hands extended down between their bodies and began playing with her clit. The sight of the girl touching herself while he fucked her was too much for Vlad and he gave a few deep thrusts before moaning loudly, spilling his seed deep into his lover. Feeling Vlad’s cock twitch hard with each ejaculation caused Danny to follow close behind him, arching her back and letting out a string of curses as she climaxed hard around him.

 

The older halfa took a moment to catch his breath before pulling out of Danny and rolling off to the side to allow her more room to breathe. Sweat had soaked through the sheets they were on and the entire room smelled like sex. Danny began to giggle to herself while her brain was high on endorphins. Cracking an eyebrow, Vlad slid an arm around her shoulders and brought the girl to his chest, nuzzling the ridiculous sex-hair he’d given her.

 

“Did my application get approved then?”

 

“Don’t ruin it”, he begged into her hair.

 

Danny Fenton was the Queen of mood-ruining. It was kind of her thing. He’d just have to get used to that.

 

“I’m just saying, if you expect me to strut around in a little office miniskirt like some terrible porno film then you’ve got the wrong idea”

 

Vlad chuckled, drawing shapes with his fingers over the small of her back

 

“I’d be open to negotiation if you agree to wear said pornographic skirt outside of office hours. Keep in mind that's on top of the flexible hours I'll grant for your supernatural community service”

 

Danny pretended to think hard about the condition. “Alright, that seems fair”

 

“Glad to hear it. Now about that coffee – “

 

Vlad immediately regretted his terrible joke as Danny’s foot pushed him off the bed, taking the blankets with him.

 

“You insolent little brat!”, he smirked up at the girl who beamed triumphantly from her perch on the bed.

 

“You bet! And you get a whole eternity with said insolent brat too – aren’t you a lucky guy?”

 

“Indeed I am, Little Badger”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was 1600 + words of sex scene. My kudos to everyone here who writes explicit sexual content because hell, that was a challenge. 
> 
> A couple of my end goals during this story:
> 
> 1\. Scratch an itch where I needed more gender bending in Danny Phantom fandom
> 
> 2\. Practise writing tomboyish female characters
> 
> 3\. Evolving a hate relationship to a love relationship in a somewhat realistic way (which is how this became an 8 chapter fic from what was originally a one shot) 
> 
> Next time I'd like to put more of an emphasis on describing surroundings and environments. I've read a lot of good work on this sight where the authors have done an amazing job at painting a scene in your head. That'll be something well worth practising I think.
> 
> Anyway, a big thank you to everyone who read this. Those of you who left a kudos - I cherish each one of them. It's one thing to write for the sake of writing but to have someone enjoy your story - that is the biggest compliment.


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